The name Eden means delight – and what is more delightful than the silver glint of a river coursing through a lush green garden? The Creation story in Genesis Chapter 2 describes such a river flowing through God’s 'Garden of Delights', a landscape of sheer perfection – visually beautiful, functional and richly instructive. Genesis tells us that Nature is not primary. God is. The garden and river come from a landscape artist who loves life, beauty, form, function, and, quite obviously, the people for whom the garden was designed.
Imagine this - God designed us all to live in Eden, and for Eden to live in us, with a river – God’s living spirit - flowing through us, a stream of joy and purpose, of love and creativity, a stream that keeps us alive-to-God and to the world around us.
The Eden river waters the garden and then flows in four streams out to diverse regions of the world. Two of the streams are the great rivers of Mesopotamia, anchoring the story in the real world. The other two rivers are unknown. Biblical curiosity-hunters knock themselves out trying to identify them and thus to determine the location of Eden, but location is not the point. The significance of this river is how it nourishes the garden, and then flows out into the world.
The river is a sign of God’s goodness as source of everything that enriches life – all that delights us and makes us thrive. The river flows through – and out of Eden to show that God’s gifts are not given just for our private enjoyment.
The Bible does not allow us to privatize our faith. Adam and Eve and their descendents have been given the stewardship of the whole creation. Their work in the world is to flow, like the river, out into every sector of society, geography and culture in the vast mosaic we call our world. We influence others, for better or for worse. Every person and family, every city and nation, every school and industry has a direct effect on others. None of us lives to ourselves.
This picture of a river-centered society proclaims inter-dependence as an axiom of human flourishing. This truth cuts across every self-serving culture.
Imagine . . . how social life on our planet would prosper if we all treated natural resources as if they belonged to us all. . . .and if we all allowed God’s spirit to flow through us to enrich the larger world.
My heart jumps with delight when I think of a world where we would all treat rivers and streams as if they belonged to us all by protecting and watching over them. Similarly my heart jumps with excitement when I think what could be accomplished for the Kingdom if we would stop "damming" up God's spirit in our lives with fear and inhibitions but rather let it freely flow through us to enrich the community we live in and the lives we touch through our influence.
ReplyDeleteThanks David for today's thought provoking post.
Never went on that walk, the rain washed our plans out but looking forward to the next oportunity to walk in the woods and ponder.
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