Christmas Begins our Journey Back to the Garden-of-Eden Life
My guess is you’re tired today. I assure you I am tired since I set my alarm for 4:30am and went back to work. We don’t experience much glory on the day after Christmas.
Some of you experienced a magical Christmas. You attained every level of ideal throughout the entire day. Others of you held grand hopes, but life happened, even on Christmas. Yet, as you look back over the day, you recognize moments that hold memories you will always cherish. However, you could be one who just survived Christmas, and you are thankful today is just plain old Tuesday.
This Year’s Christmas
I find myself contemplating this question: Did I give Jesus the Christmas He wanted? I have pondered various forms of that question the entire month of December.
This year, I experienced a different holiday due to the fact of living at the Farmhouse. I didn’t have all my decorations and I didn’t bake cookies. In addition, since my sweet Pastor husband and I are planning for all the extras a new home requires, I felt bad asking for presents that weren’t boringly practical.
God’s Plans
Even though Christmas is only a single day on the calendar, I don’t think God intended us to celebrate the coming of His son Jesus for just one day of gift-giving and feasting. After all, God planned Jesus’ arrival before time began. Paul tells us in the first chapter of his letter to the Ephesians, God chose us before He created the world. He planned for us to be holy because of Jesus from the beginning.
“Even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes. God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ.”
Ephesians 1:4-5 NLT
God designed a life for us that was built on a relationship with Him. God never intended for us to be stressed, exhausted, burnt out, and dissatisfied with our lives. In Genesis 1 and 2, we learn the kind of life God intended for us.
The Garden-of-Eden Life
Life with Purpose and Rest
First of all, God intended a life filled with purpose and rest. Have you ever noticed that God accomplished one general task each day of creation, and then quit? He didn’t envision the entire project of creating a world and then kept going until He couldn’t keep His eyes open. God worked on a section of the project each day, and then stopped. He had purpose, and He rested regularly.
We read in Genesis 1:28 God assigned a job to Adam and Eve. They had two distinct tasks. Adam and Eve were to be fruitful and multiply, and they were to govern the earth.
However, Adam and Eve weren’t to fill their lives with just work. God laid out a plan to help them value rest. He created day and night; a set time to work and a set time to rest (Genesis 1:14). In addition, God provided the example of resting on a weekly basis. God dedicated six entire days to achieving tasks, then set one day aside as a holy day. When God instituted day and night, He also instituted seasons. God created seasons of planting, harvesting, and resting (Genesis 1:14).
Life With God, Relying on God
Second, God planned for man to accomplish his tasks with God, and to rely on God. God even gave Adam on-the-job training in this particular aspect. God recognized Adam needed a helper (Genesis 2:18) and He decided He would design a helper just for Adam. However, God doesn’t immediately create Adam’s helper.
I find it interesting that Genesis 2:19 tells us God brings each animal to Adam for him to name instead of creating Adam’s helper. As I read the verse, I also picked up that God allowed Adam to discover that none of the creatures he named were suitable as a helper for him. God didn’t force His knowledge and decision concerning the ideal helper on Adam. He brought Adam along for the ride, going at his pace, and collaborating with him.
Moreover, God provided Adam and Eve all they needed when He placed them in the Garden of Eden (Genesis 2:15-17) They were allowed to eat freely of every tree but one. From the beginning, God asked Adam and Eve to rely on His wisdom and His discretion. They were to trust the boundaries He set for them.
Eternally Immanuel
God created a life for all of us that holds purpose and intimacy. God didn’t want to be viewed at a distance. He has always wanted to be the “with-us God.”
God is omniscient, and He knew man would choose to step outside the boundaries He set. So, before God ever spoke the world into order, He crafted a plan how He would rescue and redeem us. Before you or I were born, God created a way for us to have the Garden of Eden life He intended for us.
The holiday we know as Christmas is over for this year, but the celebration continues. Christ is Immanuel, the “with-us God.” He came and lived a life that reveals to us how to live the Garden-of-Eden life God intended for us. Jesus lived out purpose and rest, and modeled how to work with God, while also relying on God. Then He sacrificed His life so that we could be made “holy and without fault in [God’s] eyes.” (Ephesians 1:4)
Christmas’ Best Gifts
We still get to live in all the glory we associate with Christmas. We are chosen to be adopted into the Royal Sovereign family of God. Plus, God is willing to provide on-the-job training to teach us how to live our best life. Truly, God has given us a gift that keeps giving.
Furthermore, we can still give Jesus a Christmas gift that declares our love and gratitude to Him. We can offer God ourselves; we can humbly submit to His Lordship. Following that, we live with His purpose and mission, follow His example of setting aside time for rest, as well as listen to the Spirit’s lead so we work with God, while we rely on God.
Merry first day after Christmas.
