Eden Around the Corner
Australian country singer John Williamson sings a beautiful but poignant song called “Cootamundra Wattle.” It portrays a woman reminiscing and crying over painful memories from the distant past, as she looks at mementos in a camphor box. The songwriter calls her to :
“Come out here and sit down in the sun/ Can’t you hear the magpies in the distance/ Don’t you hear the new day has begun/ Can’t you hear the bees making honey woman/ In the spotted gum where the bellbirds ring/ You might grow old and bitter because you missed them/ You know some people never hear such things. . . .
“Don’t buy the daily papers anymore woman/ Read all about what’s going on in hell/ They don’t care to tell the world of kindness/ Good news never made a paper sell/ There’s all the colours of the rainbow in the garden woman/ And symphonies of music in the sky/ Heaven’s all around us if you’re looking/ But how can you see it if you cry?”
These moving lyrics contrast destructive things in life with redemptive aspects of nature, which can be so powerful in bringing healing to a wounded soul. Even though nature itself bears scars of its own from the past, it is still an echo of the Garden of Eden and, as such, a revelation of the heart and purpose of God for us.
It was for this reason that Jesus constantly used nature in His parables to teach us about God’s benevolent intention for the human race. Ellen White points out that if only we could now look at creation through the eyes of Christ, “the earth will nevermore be a lonely and desolate place” (Education).
Isaiah reflects this same thought, contrasting the present world of deserts and ruins with the Garden of Eden: “The Lord will surely comfort Zion and will look with compassion on all her ruins; he will make her deserts like Eden, her wastelands like the garden of the Lord. Joy and gladness will be found in her, thanksgiving and the sound of singing” (51:3).
An indwelling disease that we are powerless to counteract blights everything our eyes see today—theologians call it “sin.” It has resulted in ruined lives, ruined health, ruined marriages, ruined families, ruined environment, ruined economies, ruined climates and ruined governments.
Eden, however, portrays something before original sin. In it we see original blessing, which is the real purpose of God for this world and life of ours. In the first six days of Creation, portrayed in Genesis 1:3-25, God is rolling out the red carpet in readiness for humankind, the crowning act of His creation. Everything men and women would need for their existence and enjoyment of life was graciously provided for them before they came into existence.
He could have made every smell a stench, every colour a dull grey, every touch a stinging nettle, every taste bitter and every sound a cacophonous noise. But instead He gave us the fragrance of a rose, the spectrum of the rainbow, the smoothness of baby’s skin, the tang of mangoes and the melody of a moonlight sonata.
Everything He’s done is in lavish prodigality and endless variety, much of it hidden for us to stumble over and catch our breath in wonder. There are new worlds for us to discover under the ground and in the depths of the sea, through the telescope or down a microscope, in the lushness of the jungle and frozenness of Antarctica or barrenness of the desert. Endless species of animals, flowers, birds, insects, shells, crystals and gems challenge our inquisitive and orderly mind.
Creative artists find a field day in the infinite combination of melody, harmony and rhythm, the exquisite taste of a gourmet meal, the fragrant perfume of countless aromatic oils, the emotive capture of beauty and life in painting, sculpture and photography, the breathtaking loveliness of human movement in ballet and gymnastics, the imaginative, endless arrangements of every conceivable flower and the discriminating colours of stained glass and kaleidoscopes.
God is not sensual, but He is enormously sensuous. As we survey His handiwork, we can say along with Him that it is “very good.”
In the Genesis account of Creation, we see profound answers to every contemporary longing of the human heart. It reveals a destiny, for which our restless hearts long as they constantly scan the news, searching, ever searching for some trend in the midst of despair and hopelessness. It paints a picture of genuine re-creation that offers more than the often brutal and soul-destroying competitiveness of every sporting field. It portrays a contentment that mocks the aching void of consumerism and advertising. It depicts sanctity of life that challenges gratuitous violence, meaningless terrorism and the “collateral damage” of power-mongering wars. It exposes the emptiness of lust and gratuitous sex by contrasting it with the fulfilment of every relational longing in the purity of primal marriage. It ridicules the destructive nature of addictive substance abuse through the delights of nutritious food and abounding health. It spells the doom of rampant fascination with the demonic with the prevailing power of a Holy Spirit.
The New Testament is very clear that it was Jesus who spoke everything into existence at the creation of the world (see John 1:1-3, 14; Colossians 1:16; Hebrews 1:1, 2). When He walked this earth among us, He again gave us insights into Eden and that original blessing, together with previews of what He will finally fully restore.
He spoke peace to raging waves; direction to schools of fish; life to the stench of death; multiplication to the meagreness of present loaves and fish; health to twisted limbs, leprous flesh, mute voices, and blind eyes; joy to conflict-ridden marriages; and rich wine to empty, sterile religious washings. He gave us a taste of the original blessing, and nothing else was ever in His heart for us.
God is far better than ever we dare dream of or think. When His Son, Jesus, died on the cross, He somehow absorbed all desert places and ruins into Himself. When we look at what happened on the cross, we are looking at the ultimate destiny of bankrupt lives, broken health, raped environments, tragic accidents, unexplainable cancers, and moral sickness. In the magnitude of his original blessings we see the certainty of His heart for our future.
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This is an extract from March 2004
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