Creation in the Garden
Genesis 1:26-31 (NIV)
26 Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals] and over all the creatures that move along the ground.” 27 So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. 28 God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground.” 29 Then God said, “I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food. 30 And to all the beasts of the earth and all the birds in the sky and all the creatures that move along the ground—everything that has the breath of life in it—I give every green plant for food.” And it was so. 31 God saw all that he had made, and it was very good. And there was evening, and there was morning—the sixth day.
Our journey through Lent this year is about parallel gardens: about the garden lost (the Garden of Eden) and the garden restored (the Garden of Gethsemane).
In Eden, the shame initiated when Adam and Eve’s eyes were opened still paralyzes. We don’t always hear the voice that Adam and Eve heard in the cool of the garden; nor do we recognize Christ’s voice speaking to us. And so it goes. Fellowship is hindered, we cannot see God face-to-face, pain continues, and the serpent still tempts and throws dice for our soul.
For the uncomfortable time being, we hover between two gardens. We long for the perfection of Eden, still we resist pressing onward to the fulfillment of Gethsemane.
But we can learn to flourish in between, learn to live with the tension of ‘not quite’, learn to live with what we don’t fully understand, learn to lean toward the hope while still in this land between. Ultimately, the Garden of Eden finds its fulfillment in the garden of Gethsemane – and so, God willing, shall we. Because this is a journey about finding life.
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Adapted from “FINDING LIFE…from Eden to Gethsemane”
Lent series by Major Randall Polsley
(Adapted from Finding Life, pages 18-19, 22-23, 26)
