Choice in a Garden

It was a beautiful day in the garden; the sun filtered light through the canopy of bright green leaves above, the birds were singing, and Adam was taking a ride on the stegosaurus with his beloved companion, Eve.  It was another perfect day in Eden, or at least, so it began.  Little did Adam or Eve know how dramatically their life and future prospects would change that day.

This was the day that Adam and Eve decided to trust the words of someone else over God’s Holy Word.  They let themselves doubt God’s Word, as the serpent asked them, “Hath God indeed said . . . ”  Because of their choice, all of mankind now suffers the consequences of hard work, suffering, pain, separation, and death.  Sin is a terrible thing; it brought corruption to God’s perfect creation.  God did not create suffering and death, rather He created everything good, and corruption came into the world because of our choice to disobey God.

However, even though the first Adam chose to doubt God’s Word  and disobey Him in the Garden of Eden,  the Last Adam, Jesus, chose to obey God in the Garden of Gethsemane about four thousand years later.  Because of the choice that the Last Adam made to obey God, we have the option to accept redemption from the Creator Who stooped to help us.

We have two options.  The first option is that we can follow in the footsteps of the first Adam, doubt God’s Word, and suffer the consequences of eternal pain and torment.  The second option is that we can follow in th footsteps of the Last Adam, put God’s Word in primary authority over our lives, learn to love Him, and have the glorious restoration of that first perfect world that God created and live with Him eternally where there will be no more tears or death.  The choice of the first Adam vs. the choice of the Last Adam, both made in a garden one day, is one of the links between creation and Easter.