a balanced design

This week we are looking at the Garden of Eden, before the problems of eating the forbidden fruit set in.  After God had made all of Creation and the last act of Creation was to form man and woman, He fashioned a beautiful garden for them to live within.  The garden had quite a variety of beautiful trees and delicious fruits.  There were rivers to add water and additional beauty.  There was a very pure gold and other precious stones and minerals.  The purpose for man was to tend the garden and enjoy the provision of God in partnership with a life partner.  You might say that there are three aspects of life: someone to worship, something to do and someone to share with.  Or another way of saying it is: there is something to do, someone to do it with, and someone to do it for.  There is a completeness, even today, in living this way.  When we realize that God is still the One who has placed us in our particular garden of living and we have been given certain skills and abilities to be fruitful and we have a spouse and family / friends to share the experience...we find fulfillment.  I believe it all begins to take focus when we acknowledge that God has fashioned it all and we are fashioned, like Adam and Eve, according to His design and for His great pleasure.  But we need all three components in some kind of heavenly balance.

Genesis 2:⁸ Then the Lord God planted a garden in Eden in the east, and there he placed the man he had made. ⁹ The Lord God made all sorts of trees grow up from the ground—trees that were beautiful and that produced delicious fruit...¹² The gold of that land is exceptionally pure; aromatic resin and onyx stone are also found there...¹⁵ The Lord God placed the man in the Garden of Eden to tend and watch over it...¹⁸ Then the Lord God said, "It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper who is just right for him."

blessings,

Rob Smith