Did you ever consider what the Garden of Eden was like? In the original creation everything was perfect and made to last forever. All the animals, the plants, the earth itself, along with man was vibrant and alive, growing, blossoming, and most beautiful, full of color. Everything was originally stable, lasting, permanent, full of life that never slowed down or aged or even waned a little. Sin took all of that away.
Gen. 3:17; Cursed is the ground because of sin.
Gen. 3:19; Cursed is man because of sin.
Everything is now groaning under the effects of sin. In Romans 8:21, Paul says we are in “bondage to decay”. Everything will age, die, and decay. Science calls it the second law of thermodynamics; “entropy always increases”. Entropy is randomness. Anything left to itself will become more random in its nature. A building, for example, left to itself will become more random in its structure, eventually falling apart and decaying. Everything this side of heaven falls apart, including man.
This law was not part of our original created state. It is part of our sin state. It is not natural. It is a result of sin. We only call it natural because we have lived with it so long. We know nothing else.
But God, in His mercy, kicked Adam and Eve out of the Garden so they would not eat of the tree of life and live in this fallen state forever, according to Gen. 3:22 As a result man dies. But did you ever consider that death is actually a merciful gift from God. We now do not have to live like this, in our fallen, decaying state, forever. Christ came to restore all of creation back to a new state where the curse will be no more.
My paraphrase of I Peter 2:11; Friends, this world is not your home. In this state, it was never intended to be this way. Don’t allow yourselves to get too cozy in it. Don’t indulge your ego at the expense of your soul.
I don’t know about you, but I am looking with anxious anticipation to our new state of existence.
Allen Graber
Elder