Looking for Eden

"We all long for Eden, and we are constantly glimpsing it: our whole nature at its best and least corrupted, its gentlest and most humane, is still soaked with the sense of ‘exile’."   

                                                                                                                         *JRR Tolkien

     In the vastness of a universe full of burning balls of fire and uninhabited planets with toxic atmospheres, God created a garden.  He called it Earth.  It was a beautiful planet with blue waters, snow mountains, rain forests, waterfalls… every beautiful thing you can ever imagine.  He also filled it with living creatures of every kind from creepy, crawly creatures to trumpeting elephants and majestic blue whales.  Then He made man.  He placed them in a "garden within a garden." He called it Eden.

     Like any other garden, Eden had boundaries. However, it had everything that delighted the senses: sweet smelling flowers, delicious fruits of every kind from thousands of trees,  clean sparkling rivers, and cool, clean fresh air.  It was a safe, perfect environment.  There was no lack.  But the very best thing about Eden was that the loving Creator walked in fellowship with man, whom he created in his image... every single day.  They shared a loving relationship that was more pleasurable than any of the gifts he had given them.

     God's plan was to make yet another "garden within a garden within a garden."  He intended for Adam to have a wife and children… a family!  Just as trees, flowers, and animals thrive safely in a garden. God intended the family to be a safe and secure place for children to grow.

     But we know the rest of the story.  An enemy entered the garden and wreaked havoc by tempting the man and the woman to change masters.  They were deceived and so began the fall of man and the breaking up of the family.  Today, we can all agree that our greatest woundings and pain has something to do with our families.  We have lost Eden... and our hearts know it.  We have glimpses of Eden...

• whenever we are alone in a beautiful place, surrounded by the beauty of nature, we feel that familiar ache-- that painful tug in our hearts-- the deep desire and longing to share beauty with another person.  
• when we just can't get enough hugs and kisses from our spouse or our children and we feel "gigil" over them.
• when our pet dog looks at us with such adoring eyes.
• when we touch the flawless smoothness of a rose petal.
• when we smell the intoxicating fragrance of Ilang-ilang flowers when we happen to pass by a tree in full bloom at dusk.
• when we behold the colors of the sunset and the sound of the waves while sitting at a quiet beach.
• when we hear the sound of the waterfalls and even more when we take a dip to enjoy the powerful, refreshingly cool, clean, cascading waters-- waters that flow on and on and never run out.
• when we look towards the heavens during a starry, cloudless, moonless night, and in our heart of hearts, we cry out, "God, I miss You!  Why does my heart ache for Someone whom I haven't seen?"

     It's true.  Deep within our hearts, we KNOW for certain that there was a place called Eden but we lost it.  So what do we do to soothe that throbbing ache of loss?  We unconsciously cover it... even kill it with false pleasures-- or even with God's good gifts.  Rather than acknowledge  and lament our pain of exile, we indulge our senses with every kind of "pain numb-er":  human love, food, sex, entertainment, wealth, travel, participating in good causes, self-development... you name it!  Through all these we try to recover that Eden connection... and it's like waking up from a wonderful dream but not remembering what it was.

   
     Only God and Satan know what we lost because they were there in the garden with Adam and Eve.  To this day, Satan tries to steal our true memories of Eden and to this day, he deceives us into thinking that there are other things other than God that can satisfy our deepest longings.  

     But  God doesn't want us to forget.  Instead, He keeps wooing us, giving us clues, sending us picture messages every time we see a baby smile....observe a butterfly break out of its cocoon... feel  a cool breeze on our face on a hot day,,, stumble upon  a song with lyrics and a melody that captures our hearts and bring us to tears...

     YET the greatest thing God did was to actually build the Bridge that we needed to cross the great divide back to Eden and even beyond Eden.  That Bridge is Jesus. He is the Tree of Life in the middle of the garden.  He is Eden personified.  He is the ONE who is able to satisfy our deepest longings ... and yet He does a very odd thing.  He increases our hunger for more.  He doesn't make all the ache go away.  Why is that?  Well, God's ways are not our ways but for sure He has a purpose for all things.  We know and have experienced that the Kingdom is in us now.  But it is also still coming in its fullness.   It is both Now and Not yet.  

     So in the mean time, how does God expect us to deal with this ache?  I believe He does not want us to numb our aches, pains, and continued longings for Eden.  He wants us to embrace it.  How do we do that?  Like Jesus, He wants us to face the enemy and say, "Man shall not live by bread alone..." He wants us to channel our unmet desires, frustrations, longings and energies towards helping the widow and the orphan.  He wants us to bring Eden to others who are grieving and mourning their losses... and to tell them, yes, we are exiles... but our exile is temporary and Eden is coming back!

"And work for the peace and prosperity of the city where I sent you into exile. Pray to the LORD for it, for its welfare will determine your welfare." Jer. 29:7

"Then I saw "a new heaven and a new earth," for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away..."  Rev. 21:1

     "You will show me the way of life, granting me the joy of your presence and the pleasures of living with you forever."  Psalm 16:11