Paradise Lost

"So the LORD God banished them from the Garden of Eden, and he sent Adam out to cultivate the ground from which he had been made."

Genesis 3:23

The Garden of Eden was the original paradise, the place where God's perfect intentions for the world were fully realized. But human sin tarnished the perfection, breaking what God fashioned so carefully. Paradise was lost in the first sin, and it has continued to be lost ever since. God sent the man and woman away from the garden vividly represents this loss of life.

Yet there remains in us a yearning for things to be put right. As N. T. Wright comments in his book, Simply Christian, we hear "echoes of a voice" that speak to us of the world God intended. Our yearning for this "paradise" points us to Christ, in whom all things will be made new (Rev. 21:5).

PRAYER: Dear Lord, even as we live far away from the original paradise, our hearts ache for the world as you meant it to be. We long for the new creation, and in so doing, we long for you.

Thank you, gracious God, for the newness we can experience in Christ, for the chance to taste in advance the new creation yet to come. Help us to experience this newness today, and to live as people of the future even now. Amen.