Grace Spilled Over

Why did Adam and Eve get kicked out of the garden? You might be thinking, well duh, it’s because they sinned. But is that why they were thrown out of the garden? Look  what it says in Genesis 3.

Then the LORD God said, ‘Look, the human beings have become like us, knowing both good and evil.  What if they reach out, take fruit from the tree of life, and eat it?  Then they will live forever!’  So the LORD God banished them from the Garden of Eden . . . The LORD God stationed mighty cherubim to the east of the Garden of Eden. And He placed a flaming sword that flashed back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life.”  (Genesis 3.22-24)

So let me ask the question again, why were Adam and Eve thrown out of the Garden of Eden?

Because they had become like God knowing both good and evil. They had sinned and if they ate of the tree of life they would live forever. I don’t understand all the implications of sinful people eating of the tree of life but I do know it was enough to banish all humanity from the Garden of Eden, so there would never be even a remote chance any of us would eat from the tree.

But the beautiful thing about this banishment is that it isn’t forever! For those who are victorious, through the death and resurrection of Jesus, we will one day be able to eat the fruit of the tree of life! Check out Revelation 2.7, “To everyone who is victorious I will give fruit from the tree of life in the paradise of God.”

At the beginning of the Bible we see the banishment and at the end we see the final restoration. Full circle.

God loves to bring things full circle. He loves to take what was broken and make it new.  He loves to take what sin has made ugly and turn it into something beautiful!  He loves turning ashes into beauty.  He is a restoring kind of God.

We see it all throughout Scripture in the lives of His people – Job, Joseph, Paul (just to name a few).

And I’ve seen this in my own life (maybe you have too) . . . I was born to missionary parents in Alaska. I loved it there, it was my home, my safe place. When I was around nine years old we moved from Alaska to California and my world fell apart. All I wanted to do was to go back “home”. As a young girl, I decided the best way to go back would be to become a missionary. I grew up with that hope in my heart until God brought me face to face with my true motivation and called me to surrender to His will and His way. I let go of my dream and began to pursue Him. And now forty years later, I’m finally carrying the love of Jesus to women all over the world. God has brought this hope in my heart full-circle.

Being in the middle of the circle is the hard part. Trusting God when things don’t make sense. When He calls us to wait in the uncertainty. When it doesn’t look like He will restore. When it seems He will never bring healing. When it feels impossible.

But it’s in the middle where God does His most refining work.

There’s a vast space of time between Genesis and Revelation and so it often is, in our circles.

Don’t let go, don’t give up. God is at work, maybe you can’t see it but He is. Trust that He will bring your pain, your sorrow, your brokenness, into His full-circle restoration!
We haven’t reached the promise. We haven’t tasted of the tree of life, but it is there waiting for us and one day . . . One day, for those who allow God to do His refining work and are victorious, we will eat of that tree and finally come full-circle!

Spilling His grace,

kristi