Nancy Guthrie - Even Better Than Eden: Nine Ways the Bibles Story Changes Everything about Your Story

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Even Better than Eden

Nine Ways the Bibles Story Changes Everything about Your Story

Nancy Guthrie

Even Better than Eden

One of my favorite lines in a movie is delivered by Albert Brooks to William Hurt in Broadcast News . Hurts character is a pretty -b oy news anchor who has just been given a network job. Hes talking to Brookss character, who is brilliant and works hard but cant seem to get ahead. Hurts character asks the question, What do you do when your real life exceeds your dreams? And Brookss character replies in covetous disgust, You keep it to yourself!

Anyone who has looked at pictures of someone elses seemingly perfect family or idyllic vacation on social media and felt a little jealous has been tempted to say the same thing. Most of us know what it is like to sense, at one time or another, that people around us seem to be living the good life while we cant seem to get there. Were not always sure what the good life is; we just sense the life were living isnt it. The good life can seem like a mirage set out before us that is always just out of reach.

So what is the good life, and how do we get it?

Five of my favorite people in the world are Eric, Ruth, Abby, Brennan, and Pearl Brown. When Ruth was twenty weeks pregnant with Pearl, Pearl was diagnosed with alobar holoprosencephaly (HPE), a neural disease with low chances of survival. The doctor encouraged Eric and Ruth to induce labor and end the pregnancy. But the Browns opted to embrace life and hope and to carry Pearl to term. They didnt know how long she would live or what her life would be like, but it is now almost five years later, and Pearl is still very much alive! Their lives and Pearls life arent easy, but Pearl is so loved. The constant hospitalizations that have marked Pearls life, Abbys recent diagnosis of juvenile diabetes, and foundation problems with the house, along with all the normal hardships of life, mean that most people would say that the Browns are not living the good life. And on their honest days, they admit that it doesnt always seem so good to them either. A few weeks ago Eric posted a photo on Instagram along with a message that read, in part:

Its been a hard year so far. Id be lying if I painted it as anything other than a steamroll. Everything that is out of our control (that is to say, everything) seems to be heading the opposite of where weve aimed. Everything we ought to be able to grip just slips through our fingers, and sometimes it seems to do so with a grin. And in spite of my strongest theologies, the lies always seem louder and more believable this time of year.... The number of times that I have to stop in a day, zoom out, and try to remind myself of what is true, meaningful, and everlasting is embarrassing. I often praise the idea of weakness, though when weakness moves from theoretical to reality, it can become debilitating rather than romantic.

Sometimes it seems that life just shouldnt be this hard. It can seem that the good life, the life weve always longed for, will always be out of our reach. And there is a bit of truth to that. Something profound shifted in the world when Adam and Eve tried to take hold of the good life in the wrong way rather than trust God to give it to them. That shift left everything a bit off -k ilter and some things horribly out of whack. It left us longing for everything to be set right. We long for the good life in which house foundations dont shift, finances are never an issue, relationships are always loving, and bodies are never touched by deformity or disability or death. So is this good life destined to always be out of our reach?

When we read in the first two chapters of the Bible about the way things once were, we see Adam and Eve living together in a perfect environment. Eve had everything she needed and everything she should have wanteda marriage with no conflict or disappointment and a home decorated by the master designer. Her life had meaning and fruitful purpose. She had no reason to wince when she looked in the mirror, no reason to hide in the presence of God. But she knew there was more. As good as life was in the garden, there was something even better that was to be hers with Adam if they obeyed God. Not only would they escape the impact of sin; the possibility of sin would be gone for good. Their life would go from perishable to imperishable, from vulnerable to temptation to impervious to temptation, from the good life to an even better, unlose -a ble life.

In fact, this promise of the better -t han -g ood life, the glorious life, is still held out to you and me. Its there throughout the Bible but made especially clear in its final chapters. At the end of the Bibles story we find the same symbol of this life we long for that was there at the beginningthe tree of life. Heres the promise from Jesus himself: To the one who conquers I will grant to eat of the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God (Rev. 2:7). The tree of life is not simply a thing of the past. Its a promise for our future.

The Promise of a Tree in the Garden of Eden

So what is this tree, and can we expect to feast on its fruit? To find out, we have to begin at the very beginning. And the Lord God planted a garden in Eden, in the east, and there he put the man whom he had formed. And out of the ground the Lord God made to spring up every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food (Gen. 2:89 ).

A garden full of treesnot those ugly, useless scrub trees the builder clears from a lot before building a house. These were lush and verdant trees, beautiful to look at and bearing fruit that tasted delicious. We can almost see the green, feel the shade, taste the juicy fruit, and smell the fragrant aroma of these trees. There was so much goodness for Adam and Eve to relish and enjoy. Among all the trees God planted, two particular trees stood out.

First, there was the tree of life, which was in the midst of the garden (Gen. 2:9). To eat the fruit of this tree would be to enjoy an even better quality of life than what Adam and Eve already enjoyed in Eden. The nourishment this tree offered would satisfy them in a deeper, unending way, leading to an even more secure and glorious life.

Its not that this was a magical tree or that its fruit had some innate power to instill life. Augustine wrote that Adam and Eve had nourishment in other trees; in this, however, a sacrament.

The presence of the tree of life communicated to Adam and Eve, There is even more goodness ahead for you. If youll trust God to take care of you by obeying his word, you will eat my fruit, and enjoy a life that is even better than the life you enjoy now.

Also in the midst of the garden was the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (Gen. 2:9). We might think that this tree looked evil, that it was somehow twisted or gave off a foreboding sense of darkness. But there was nothing inherently repulsive or poisonous about this particular tree. What made it different from all the other trees was what God said about it: The Lord God commanded the man, saying, You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die (Gen. 2:1617 ).