Crushing Chaosਨਮੂਨਾ

BEAUTY RESTORED

Genesis 2:8 tells us, “The Lord God had planted a garden in the east, in Eden; and there he put the man he had formed.” Notice that the entirety of Eden isn’t a garden. Instead, God plants a garden within a wider space of land known as Eden. Adam and Eve are in an ordered system surrounded by chaos. They must choose whether they want the garden or the wilderness.

We are constantly making the same choice.

Consider this earthly example of beauty restored: During the French Revolution, the Château du Champ de Bataille was raided. The property ultimately descended into chaos. What was once one of the most beautiful gardens in all of Europe became an overgrown, unkempt, deserted wilderness.

Until Jacques Garcia purchased the property in 1992 and undertook the overwhelming task of bringing this garden back from the death grip of nature and the wilderness.

When he bought the château, Garcia discovered sketches of the original garden. He went to work to reproduce them into designs so that gardeners from across Europe could bring the original vision back to life.

Garcia believed that the original garden could thrive again. Order could be imposed again so that the garden would flourish. He believed that the blueprint he found would unlock the order that chaos had utterly defeated and bring back the beauty that had been destroyed.

That’s the gospel. God planted a garden. Chaos turned it into a wilderness. For three years of earthly ministry, Jesus worked to restore the Order that had been lost. Then in a shocking turn of events, chaos defeated the second Adam, the Gardener, on the cross.

But on that Resurrection morning, Jesus stood in the garden ready to invite humans made from soil back into the only space where we truly flourish: the garden of God.

To ensure that we don’t allow the chaos of life back into His garden, we die. We die to our old selves, to the patterns and systems of the old earth. Our life “is now hidden with Christ in God” (Colossians 3:3-4). We rebuild our lives based on the blueprints that the Gardener of our souls recovered.

And we crush the chaos.

Thank You, Father, for never giving up on Your creation. Help me to lay aside the patterns and distractions of this world and seek Your Order, Your peace, and Your redemption. Amen.