Created for the Garden, Living in the Desert

“If I find in myself desires which nothing in this world can satisfy, the only logical explanation is that I was made for another world.” – C.S. Lewis

Relational heartache, loneliness, despair over injustice and righteous anger are all familiar emotions for most of us.

Personal disappointments frequently lead to honest disappointment with God as well. We are confused. Our understanding is limited by a bias gleaned from painful past experiences as well as the chaos of modern life. 

God’s design revealed in Genesis gives us understanding of God’s true heart and allows us to unravel our present condition. God prepares a luxurious garden, generously providing for every need; the provision of beauty and taste and satisfaction.  God declares all things “good,” until He declares Adam’s aloneness as the first “not good.”

Even in a perfect environment and a perfect relationship with God, human aloneness was not good. God fashioned a companion and presented her to Adam declaring, “very good.” Eve was custom designed for him. Eve and Adam enjoyed a relationship with each other and with God in a perfect environment of beauty. They were fully satisfied with one another and with God in a garden of delight.

In truth, we were designed by our loving Father to live in a perfect world.  A world with harmonious relationships and joyous discovery. But after sin enters the picture, nothing remains the same.

Sadly, we now live in a broken and twisted world, one which advertises what it can never deliver.  Often we are deceived as well. We look for heaven now.

We are thirsty people seeking to quench our urgent thirst in temporal ways. Jesus’ invitation in John 7:37, “Come to me, all you who are thirsty” resonates in our hearts. But often, we dismiss our thirst and deny we are seeking other sources for satisfaction.

Honesty requires us to stop. To acknowledge what we desire. This helps bring focus and opening those desires to Him.  Psalm 37 is clear in God’s instruction: “Take delight in the Lord, and He will give you the desires of your heart.” A great question to ponder in prayer would be to ask Him daily, “How can I delight in you today?”  A prayer for examination might be “Show me, Lord, how am I delighting in something other than You.”