Christ’s coming, Paul tells us was to reconcile the world to God; to bring two estranged parties back together. God had created people to live with Him in the Garden of Eden. This was to be a life of communion, of pastoral bliss with humans and the rest of creation living in harmony, with the earth providing sustenance for all, apparently with little painstaking work. An Idyllic garden it was to be, with the creatures being blessed to live their lives in shalom.
But you know the story – the humans rebel, not appreciating what they had and poking God in the eye with a sharp stick. Yes, God had said, “eat of everything…except.” Well, they had eaten and the problem was now manifest. Knowing the difference between right and wrong – good and evil – they were now responsible for themselves before God.
And they knew it. That’s why they were hiding from God when He came looking for them. Once we’ve sinned; once we’ve gone against God, there is nothing we can do to “not have done that.” We can’t fix the problem. But this was more than just a little moral faux pas; this was a direct ignoring of a specific direction. This was blatant disrespect; blatant ego running roughshod. The only one who can fix this breach is God by offering forgiveness in His mercy and grace.
The rift has been our biggest problem since. It got humans thrown out of the Garden and from the Tree of Life. It resulted in most of Mankind coming to not know God and to such degeneration that God started almost completely all over through the Flood. If shalom hadn’t been gutted before Noah showed up, it certainly had been by the time the rains came.
This scenario is a common one in Scripture, repeated over and over in the history of Israel and her God; the history of Israel and her neighbors. If there is one plotline in Scripture, it includes almost constant conflict – petty, familial, and national. By exercising his ego, Adam ushered in eons of ego, spilling blood and hearts all around the globe.
And yet.
And yet, there is always – sometimes we have to look for it – hints of coming reconciliation. A restoration of peace; a future relationship and life of shalom. Whether it is the promise to Eve that her descendant would bruise a head, or God’s repeated promises to Israel of rescue and redemption, or the promises of the coming King of Peace and Jesus’s promise to draw all men to Himself, there is a minor chord providing an alternative storyline – one not of conflict, but of coming together in peace.
Peace is the English word but a better concept is of shalom. Peace can be the absence of conflict; shalom speaks to fulfilling abundance. An abundance that satisfies inside of us; safety; acceptance; acknowledgment; value. God seeks to bring and He offers to all of us just that sort of shalom and life with Him again.
What we cannot do, God does. He does this because the plan isn’t over; it isn’t ruined. No, God intends that the creation resemble a phoenix, rising from the ashes of its decay to Life with Him.
This week of Advent, we remember those promises and we anticipate the coming again of our Savior and the final administration of peace between God and people, between people, and peoples. A peace that brings shalom to all those who eagerly await His coming.
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