...text for April 18, 2020

Jehovah  God planted in Eden...and there he put the man whom he had created. - Gen. 2:8

This is a beautiful text to meditate on. We've seen beautiful parks ourselves in our day. The stately Central Park of New York, or the splendor of Yosemite or Yellowstone.

But, when you read this account in Genesis, do you imagine the Eden being small? I did. The text comments today made me realize that Eden was much larger. It abounded with "every tree" (Gen. 1:29). In this same verse, Adam had every seed to grow things.  For example, there are 2.500 varieties of apples in the world today. Think of it: If you had 2,500 apple trees, eating a different apple per day, it would take almost 7 years before you got back to the first apple you ate! Now, think about the hundreds to thousands of varieties of other fruits and vegetables. The grden of Eden had to be of suffieient size to hold all these and the animals also!

Jehovah wasn't content to leave it a one thing of a kind, but abundantly supplied so many things to Adam and Eve.  They literally had *everything*, but threw it away because Satan "offered" something  a little bit more, that was really unreachable (as if everything was not enough!).

That's like being on some game show, and you're given the choice of a huge prize, like a new house, and you bet it on whatever was behind Door #2, only to find that the prize behind that door was a 20%-off coupon for a steak dinner at your local Black Angus! What lunacy! And you can't revoke your choice and say you'd like the house. It's done, no do-over!

But, to imagine Eden as a really huge and beautiful park, bigger than Yosemite, and to see yourself living it it, that's what you need to visualize for yourself. The reality will even surpass what we can imagine using our imperfect brains. You may decide you want to live at the beach, or live in the mountains, but whee ever it is, it will be breath-taking awesome.

So, among the panic of COVID-19, close your eyes and tell yourself that the future holds amazing beauty and there's plenty for everyone.

Stay safe!