YOURS FAITHFULLY

APRIL was a tremendously wet month. Potholes were filled with water and many of the football pitches were not fit for purpose.

I’m not complaining, I’m simply stating the facts.

Yes, I seem ungrateful I know, but it got me thinking about how little I appreciate the value of water.

We understand that we need it to survive yet it’s probably only when there’s a shortage of it do we truly appreciate its value.

I recently read an article about football commentator Martin Tyler. During the 2022 World Cup he nearly lost his ability to communicate through an overuse of his voice.

He needed two operations and speech therapy over two years to help restore it.

Sometimes it’s only when we lose something precious that we really begin to appreciate its true value and goodness.

However, sometimes it can be too late or hard to move on when we look back longing for the good old days. In the Garden of Eden, in the book of Genesis, Adam and Eve choose to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

Before then, they experienced only goodness and they lacked nothing.

It was only after they rejected God’s command not to eat from the tree that they experienced evil.

Imagine experiencing such goodness then having to look back through an open door at the wonderful beauty and ultimately a love that satisfies found in a relationship with God himself. Yet, at the same time not able to get back into that life.

This for me is tormenting, a knowledge of such goodness yet unable to have it again. Maybe this is what can be described as hell.

All of us have lost something – or more importantly someone – we know or love.

Then we have to live with the pain of this separation and learn to process it in the best way we know possible.

But if we are truly honest, what we really desire is to get back that which we have lost.

Is this possible and if so how? Time travel at the moment is not an option.

What does the Bible teach us about God’s promises? The way to life in the garden was to eat from the tree of life. It seemed harsh to remove Adam and Eve from the garden but in hindsight it’s actually wise.

To have everlasting life with the experience of torment and evil would be an horrendous thing.

So why put the tree there? For me it speaks of free will or choice.

But also it is actually wise to put this tree in the garden.

The reason they lost everything was because they disobeyed God, they rejected his command and therefore his goodness.

The tree of the knowledge of good and evil actually helps us to see what we have lost. Without a comparison we would be unaware of our mistakes.

So what is the answer? The answer for me lies in the tree of life.

In the New Testament Jesus comes to give life.

It is a step towards the restoration of the knowledge of God, who is good, and also that we can be repositioned back into a new Eden.

This is a spiritual reconnection that gives us a rich satisfaction and rest that can only be restored through the tree of life.

This can sound very far-fetched, yet I believe it has been made possible through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

What caused the problem was a simple disobedience. What corrected the problem

the’ was an obedience to point of death, paying the full price for all disobedience.

The invitation now made available through Jesus is an open door, one that we can enter back into the garden and eat of the tree of life.

When we look at the suffering in the world it directs us to we desire a new world. This is what God promises through the prophets in the Old Testament.

Trusting in these promises isn’t always easy when we face challenges in life, yet just as God promised to send a saviour and fulfilled his promise in Jesus Christ, showing him as King by conquering death, I believe we can trust in other promises he is able to fulfil.

What does this mean for us today, just wait to see what happens? Some things can be restored here on earth I believe but for others we will have to wait for those to happen in the future.

I believe we can have hope and peace through faith in God and live a life that points towards a new world that we are waiting for.

Who knows you may even see that new world begin to change before your eyes as your heart and mind are transformed in your midst.

May God bless you as you learn to put your trust in him.

‘ What we truly desire is to get back what we have lost