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The Way It Should Have Been
By arnelle | June 10, 2010
Sometimes I like to read and reread the first two chapters of Genesis. These are the only two chapters in the Bible where everything was exactly the way God planned it. These two chapters tell us what God is truly like; they show us His heart toward His creation. They show us the way it should have been. . . . .
What if Adam had never sinned? What if life on this planet had continued in the same course upon which God had set it? How would life as God planned it be?
First of all, in the physical world, there would be no weeds and thistles. Plant life would be luxurious and grow without blight. There would be no crop damage from hail or other natural disasters. Adam and his sons would spend their time dressing the garden, and the whole earth would grow into a larger and larger garden as Adam’s offspring increased. What would these gardeners do if they didn’t have to hoe weeds or spray insecticides? They would create beautiful paths and flower gardens; plan streams and ponds and waterfalls; develop extensive and breathtaking arboreta. They would cultivate fruit more beautiful and delicious than our minds can imagine. They would raise healthful vegetables more numerous than we could count. And all of it would bask in the sweet spirit of its Creator God. The spirit of peace and of love would be felt everywhere. Even today, in a wicked and stressful world, we can feel a measure of peace in a garden. We cannot imagine the sense of well-being that was the very air of Eden.
God gave Adam and Eve everything they needed in that garden, but Genesis does not record that God made a house for them. That is because the whole garden was their dwelling. There was no need for walls to keep out the cold or heat. There was no need for doors and locks to protect them from evil men. There was no need for fences to keep out wild animals because Adam had dominion over all the beasts, and he called them all by name.
Neither were there interior barriers. If we lived in a world the way it should have been, there would be no deception, no greed, no coveting, no hatred, no wounded souls. There would be joy as all pervading as the air around us. There would be love and contentment and gratitude and gentleness everywhere. And creativity! Adam was made in the likeness of his Creator. Perhaps he would have been able to create by speaking a word, too. His thoughts were not hindered by forgetfulness or doubt or fear. I don’t believe any modern test could measure his IQ.
But the best thing about the garden world – if everything were as it should be – would be the presence of God Himself. Think what you might experience. When you passed a wall of flowering bushes, your Creator might be there waiting for you. You would see His smile, and hear Him inviting you for a walk with Him. He would have wonderful, unimaginable new ideas for the world that He would like to discuss with you, and He would be happy to explain mysteries of the rest of His universe to you, too. Perhaps, most amazing, you would understand Him, and delight to learn from Him. Perhaps a leopard or a lion would join you as you walked, and a little bird would light softly on His shoulder or yours. We have seen a garden filled with beauty, but what would a garden be like filled with glory? Filled with God’s glory is the way it should have been.
Most of what we prize today would never have existed – would never have been needed, never have been missed. There were no tiny 200 bedroom palaces – all the earth was home. There would be no highways or traffic (or billboards) if people could travel as the book of Acts tells us Phillip did by the will of God. There would be no hospitals or funeral homes because no one would get sick or die. There would be no police or prisons where there was no sin. And there would be no need for armies. There would be no social workers, no orphans, no broken marriages, no sibling rivalries, no depression, no taxes, no death. If there were literature, it would be of a kind that we cannot imagine. In our present fallen state, literature always has hindrances and obstacles to be overcome in the plot. Our main characters struggle against overwhelming odds. Struggle is the essence of our literature. Without struggle, the way it should have been, we cannot even imagine stories that just rise from beauty to beauty, from perfection to perfection, from peace to overflowing peace.
In God’s world – the way it should have been – we would never have any misunderstandings among people. There would be no injured feelings, no disappointments, no sadness of any kind. We would explore the nuances of different kinds of joy, the subtleties of various shades of hope, the intricacies of all the varieties of love and appreciation. We would discover that God has many kinds of love, while we now know only two or three. Our minds would grow in trust and knowledge of the beautiful and righteous. We would not even be able to imagine despair or malice.
This is a tiny sketch of the world the way God planned for it to be – the way it should have been. We cannot recover it. We lost almost everything when Adam fell. But the one thing that I want to emphasize this morning is that the heart of God did not change because of the Fall. What God wanted for us, He still wants for us. He wants it badly enough to pour out the life of His own perfect son to restore us to His world. We live in a world of sin and death. We have each been infected with sin, and we shall each pass through death. But the life that He wants to live within us is still that pure and perfect life of Eden. It is a life of beauty and holiness and joy and creativity and love and peace. We cannot change this outer world back to the way it should have been, but we would be absolute fools not to let God change our inner world to the way He has always been.
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