About 11 years ago I was in a musical called Children of Eden. I was part of the chorus. Children of Eden is a loose retelling of Genesis 1-9. Notice I said loose.
The first three chapters of Genesis tell us about the creation of the world and the fall. The first chapter tells us how God created the world in six, twenty-four hour days. Everyone who I have talked to, who knows the Hebrew, says that the word for day in Genesis 1 is in fact the word used for a 24 hour day, and that there is not some wiggle room for millions, thousands, or even hundreds of years, but that's not the point of this rambling, so I will move on. On day 6 God creates man, both male and female. He tells them to be fruitful and multiply and to subdue the earth.
Genesis 2 gets into major detail of how God created man and woman. The man Adam, He created from the dust of the earth, (hence why we are reminded on Ash Wednesday that we are dust and to dust we shall return, but that is and is not another topic), and the woman Eve he created from a bone of Adam. Adam even calls her bone of his bone and flesh of his flesh. After the details of their creation are given, God then tells Adam and Eve the one, don't, that they are given. The other things He has told them up to this point have been do's. God tells them not to eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. That's it. That is the one thing they are not to do, a form of worship to the Lord (a thought for another time).
Well, you know the account of Genesis 3. Eve goes near the tree. Satan in the form of a serpent tells her a few crafty lies (the account even says how the serpent is crafty). Instead of fearing, loving, and trusting in God above all things, she trusts the serpent and her own eyes (the account says the fruit was pleasing to the eye), she eats a piece of the fruit and gives some to Adam, who was with her (that's another potential rambling), and he eats it too. Then God comes down into the garden to walk in the cool of the day. And this visit from God as we understand it , was not a first time thing.
This brings me to the musical. In the musical, just before the scene with Satan and the fall, Eve is walking around and gets close to the tree of knowledge of good and evil. She looks at it and all of a sudden starts to sing. The song she sings is all about going beyond. "Beeeyond, beeeyond" is how she starts the song. She wants to go beyond what she already has and does. But, think about it. She already had the ultimate Beyond! She literally walked with God in the garden! You can't get more beyond, than that!
Of course, that all changed both in the real account and in the musical. Adam and Eve disobeyed God, in other words they sinned, just as you and I do. This meant a separation from God. By eating the fruit she separated herself from the most beyond anyone could ever go. Literally walking with God.
Sin separated Adam and Eve from God and it separates us from God. Do we have anyway of having any sense of the beyond that Adam and Eve did before the fall? Jesus Himself is God and walked on earth for a time, so the people in that time had it (even if most of them were blind to it), but what about us? Every time you go to church and receive communion you do. The Real Presence of Jesus (Who we already established is God) is in that bread and wine. His Real Body and Blood are there. He said so in the three gospels that record the Last Supper and Paul reiterates this in 1 Corinthians. God is very much there with you in a way that you physically have contact with Him and bonus (far more than a bonus) you are receiving the forgiveness of those sins that separate you from God in the first place! So, next time you want to go beyond, go to church. On this side of heaven, it is the way God brings you to the Beyond!
Comentários