In the beginning, God created everything. Light, land, seas, sun, moon, and stars. He made lions and lambs, serpents and doves. To top it all off, God made—man.
He installed man in paradise. Everything was flawless, with lush foliage and rich fruits. Best of all, we might think, there were no rules, save one: Don't eat the fruit of that one tree, which of course no sane person would even consider. There was plenty else to do, creatures to name; all the ordinary things that go with creating worlds. We know the drill.
Eve, then, was ill prepared to resist when the serpent approached her and said some things about the forbidden tree and casually twisted God's words. Apparently she didn't find this so alarming that she ran screaming, like first encounters with snakes might induce today.
Instead, she heard him out, thought to herself; "hmm, doesn't seem like such a bad idea," and ate the apple. (If it was an apple.) Then she brought Adam some to try, they got found out by God, they played the worlds first round of the blame game, and they got ejected from the garden.
At this point, perfection was ruined forever and God went back to the drawing board. Man blew it, and he had to scramble for a plan B. Since then, we've been living out second best, with the yearning for what could have been, while our Creator can't get over a vague sense of disappointment in mans' fallibility.
Does this represent a familiar sentiment? It was mine, but I'm happy to report that it's actually a "sounding brass", a fallacy. God didn't go to his easel and frantically begin sketching a new world order. Nor did he say "And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel (Ge 3:15)"; then proceed to adapt to whatever fallible man threw his way to try and make that come true.
Far from it. We can read in Ephesians 1:4 as follows: According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love.
Before the foundations of the world?
Yes, before the foundations of the world.
What about the drama in Eden then, with the serpent?
Just God's plan. Not "A" or "B", his original perfect plan.
Because the thing of it is this. God made an estimated 8.7 million species. From flora and fauna of remarkable visage to all manner of things not even visible to the naked eye. Every single one of these things functions as designed. It was coded to perform after a particular fashion and play a role in a balanced and infinitely complex ecosystem. 8.7 million species, all doing exactly what the Creator had in mind. Can it be possible that one, and only one, the crown jewel of creation, would go off the rails?
Hardly! As much glory as each of these things brings to the Creator, God wanted a creature present to enjoy these things, as he did. He therefore created us, in his own image, so we could look at what he made with an appreciation for beauty and complexity that was patterned after his own. Someone who would also create, and know the challenge and reward of creation.
This could not be a happenstance sort of being who was born, bloomed, and then faded, not realizing it's own existence, as is the cycle of the rest of God's creatures. No, this creature needed to have free will. Man needed to have the ability to choose to dwell with him, to honor him. Yes, flowers are glorious things that point to the Creator, but would they do so if human eyes weren't there to perceive them, and were human minds not able to verbalize their beauty as a reflection of God?
God wanted a conscious creature, someone capable of seeing itself as separate from its surroundings. The rest of creation functions on cycles of instinct, we were created to rise above that. We are different, able to resist desires and delay gratification. This is all important, if we are to authentically worship our Creator. Further, to be completely capable of free will, there needed to be an alternative choice to God and his goodness.
That is why there was a forbidden fruit in the garden of Eden. Obedience would have been meaningless without its opposing alternative. If Adam and Eve had not chosen disobedience, how would we know it was truly an option?
The freedom to choose is the greatest power and responsibility we have been given. Choosing God is what his deepest desire is for us. The manner by which we come to God is by way of the cross of Christ. This too was set in motion before the fall.
What kind of Creator possesses ingenuity enough to create 8.7 million species? The same kind that possesses a righteousness beyond comprehension. 8.7 million uniquely functioning species will keep gifted observers busy studying them for the rest of time, yet they will still be unable to replicate the design from nothing.
God's righteousness is beyond ours by a similar magnitude to all 8.7 million species multiplied by all their idiosyncrasies. It is an incalculable equation. A void between us that seems hopelessly un-bridgeable. And yet by choosing to believe on the plan to bridge this gap, we can be united to God through Christ.
We think there are big sins and small, horrifying and banal; but to God all sin is sin. All sin separates us from him as completely as any other. The only distinction he makes is whether we sin ignorantly or presumptuously. Ignorant sin, we are taught, is covered by grace.
Presumptuous sin, though, expresses a contempt for God and a disregard for the length to which he has gone to extend to us all the power our choice is endued with. We can, by choosing to believe, complete the bridge God built to span this void made up of our unrighteousness, our brokenness.
This bridge is Jesus Christ, the spotless lamb, sacrificed for our sin. The bridge is the cornerstone of God's plan. Not plan A, not plan B, just the plan. God's perfection is extended to us through this perfect plan. We can access the pre-fall paradise of Adam and Eve's Eden by following this plan.
How are we to follow this plan? Build a turret, or pillar, or install some beams? Or perhaps erect a guardrail or two? Not even! We just need to reach out a foot and traverse this bridge with confidence. We need only to believe. The plan is complete, we just need to unlock it's power in us by participating.
And this belief will be acted out, if it is a true belief, by continuing to step out. At times a mist may drift across the bridge, but the bridge is still there. Darkness may fall, or floods rise or winds blow, but the bridge remains. And we will continue to walk, knowing that the bridge remains.
But as we learn to know God and his unrelenting faithfulness to us, we will learn where to look so that our attention will not as often be drawn away by the fog and the flood and the wind. We will fix our eyes on the place where we know the light to be, and we will see it. God's direction will by our constant, our benchmark, our consolation.
The tribulation, we are told, will always be there. But access to God by faith in his Son will also be there. The elements will attempt to rob us of warmth and light, but we can still have that deep abiding joy and peace.
And this, all this, is God's plan for us since before the beginning of time. Did you know that this was the belief you embraced, when you first said "I believe"? I didn't, but I'm trying to know it now, and I can scarcely believe my good fortune.