EDEN: 15 - Day Devotional by The Belonging CoNäide

Eden - Paul Bergin

Eden, the place of Adam and Eve’s original dwelling, means “pleasure” or “paradise.” Seemingly a mountain, where rivers flowed through it, precious stones and gold marked its brilliance. In the midst of this paradise was a garden–and God chose to place mankind within it.

Eden is beautiful, not just because of its aesthetically astounding natural bliss, but because of its presence–God’s presence. The prophet Ezekiel calls Eden the mountain of God (Ezekiel 28:13-16). Mountains were places where God often encountered mankind and Eden would be no different. The garden of Eden tells us something of God’s heart for the humanity He created.

Simply put, He loves to walk and talk with his children. Just as He did with Adam, so it is with us. God loves to dwell with us daily and permanently.

Our purpose comes only in His dwelling. Adam and Eve were to “work” and “keep” the garden, and as we witness the Bible unfolding, we see these words take on more than stewarding a physical garden, but “serving” and “preserving” the holiness of God’s presence within the earth.

Despite sin’s attempt, all of Eden’s prerogative is still being established through you as a royal priesthood. A priesthood that extends the presence of God’s word, knowledge and character to those wandering in the wilderness of life, unaware that there is pleasure and paradise awaiting them.

Eden will be one day re-established in the New Heavens and Earth where we dwell with God forever. Yet Eden can be now, too. This Edenic ideal does not have to wait…there is no greater pleasure than to delight in the presence of God right now. To commune with His Holy Spirit is the highest of privileges.

Surely He is in this place– the place you are in right now. Whether on the mountain or in the valley, we are no longer excommunicated from Eden, but through faith in Jesus, He has made it possible to be reunited with paradise–the very presence of God.