Rearranging the Furniture of Creation

In my last post, I talked about how as God created everything, it was part of his designed purpose for each thing to reflect a facet of Himself, his character. Even mankind had a unique purpose of being his image-bearer. Everything seen, of this creation, temporal, points to the unseen and eternal.

Considering the fall, when Adam and Eve chose to break God's covenant of life with them, new realities had to be reflected in the "furniture" of creation. The reality of death and decay now had to be reflected in all things, again, in part as a testimony to mankind. This is implied in Romans 1:18 and following. All created things now reflected this tendency. Creation was still beautiful but it was broken. God promised to redeem it. (Think about reclaiming something from the dumpster and making it useful again).

Likewise, his image-bearers, as living models of the relationship between God and his people, needed to act out new realities.

For Adam, bearing fruit no longer was automatic. The investment of toil, sweat, etc. could be met with thorns and thistles. This is reflective of Hebrews 6 where it is noted that blessings can be poured on a piece of ground which only grows thorns and ends up being cursed.

For Eve, childbirth was no longer the EZ button that it would have been. It would come with travail. Likewise, we, God's people bear fruit with travail. It is not easy. Paul commented on the correlation several times in his epistles.

So again, God has continued to use everything, everything to be a constant reminder of himself, his character, his eternal purpose. More than anything, it testifies of his faithfulness. In a nutshell, his only requirement for Adam and Eve was "trust and obey" like the old hymn says. So it is for us. He is trustworthy.