Perfection

We were designed to live, move, and have our being in Creator God from the very beginning. Though mankind was perfectly aligned in this at first it was eventually interrupted when sin entered the world through disobedience. Despite this, God made a way again for mankind to come back into alignment with Him, made possible by our connection to Him and who He is by nature. In this post, we will explore together some of the aspects of God’s nature and our connection to Him.

God’s Nature

Life Giving

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth but before He said, “let there be light,” His Spirit hovered over waters. Water is symbolic for life and was a tangible manifestation of the presence of God and who He is as the Life Giver. Everything created came from His will to give life from this force that was already apart of Him. I find it fascinating that in the Bible, Jesus is considered the Word, as well as the light which Father God gave to the world to bring eternal life (John 3:16). Here we see this nature in action in which God spoke the Word and light was brought forth, bringing life. In this, it is no mystery that Jesus was part of the creation process along side Father and Holy Spirit as part of the life nature. While creating this life, God decided to use a physical property of His creation, the soil, as well as his Spirit to create mankind. I imagine that He also used already created elements to create which may explain why scientists are able to observe similarities between certain animals, plants, and other various aspects of creation. To some, this is called evolution, but whether or not this be true, I believe that the process of life started with the Life Giver as the source of all creation.

Diligent

Together, as three in One Person, He diligently and skillfully crafted the seen and unseen worlds of the natural realm consisting of time, matter, space as well as the intricate design of the spiritual realm. Everything that God made He declared “good” and in perfect alignment with His will. I believe that His will was to dwell among us and for all creation to experience His presence. Since God, being Spirit, and many created spiritual beings were present and noticed in the natural realm, I believe that there was hardly any divide or boundary between the natural and spiritual world. and that each were accessible to the other. The Bible tells of several accounts in which the spiritual and natural world intermingled especially before and during the time of Noah. Before the fall, Adam and Eve were able to encounter God without anything separating them from Him.

His diligence, shown in so many ways, can also be seen in the distinctness of every person that has ever lived. For we are all fearfully and wonderfully made, and the fact that we are uniquely crafted shows not only His diligence, but His love for each and everyone of us.

Loving

His love sees and accepts us entirely for who we are. We were created as vessels for God to fill us as we abide in Him. As created in the image of God, we all have unique characteristics that point us back to who He is and enable us to be intimate on a personal level for which each of our experiences of Him are uniquely special. This intimacy was for His good pleasure to seal our connection and to sustain us in His Life so that we may have life to the fullest. Through His love, He also sealed our connection to him by handing dominion to us over the earth, ensuring freewill, a core principle of love of which it operates through it being freely given and received, and desiring colaborship. In all of this, His loving character connects us to Him from the core of who we are to who He is. Let’s get into this even deeper.

Our Connection to Him

Made in His image

Picture this, God extending apart of who He is in how He designed us. “And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living being” Genesis 2:7. Thus, we are spirit-beings living in physical bodies with endless correlations proving our link to Him. For example, just as God has three parts to His Personhood, we do as well. For Him, He is Three Persons united as One as the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit whereas our three parts consist of the spirit, soul, and body. Additionally, just as we were created in His likeness, He came down to earth, through Jesus, in our physical likeness, to fulfill His mission. Jesus, coming in the flesh, revealed the image of the invisible God (reference) so that we could behold Him and relate to Him by our natural senses. By submitting to the will of the Father while in the flesh, He showed us that, we too, have the capacity to align ourselves with the will of God. No matter how high the fall of mankind, we have always and will always be designed for His glory as being made in His image.

Handed Dominion

Of all the places in the world, God chose the garden to be the home of the first of mankind. What was it about the garden that made it special for this purpose? If you look at the definition of garden, it means a small plot of land used to grow plants, fruits, and vegetables. But this place was not just any normal garden. It was a paradise where the tangible presence and glory of God was made manifest. In this utopia of sorts, Adam and Eve were meant to experience fullness of life in the presence of God as well as pleasure, productivity, and provision to name a few. 

In preparation for their dwelling, God lavished creation with all kinds of good pleasure that Adam and Eve could enjoy. They never experienced any lack and had all of their needs provided for.

Additionally, the garden was a place of growth where Adam and Eve were meant to mature in their relationship with God and eventually expand out to fill the earth with their descendants as productive citizens.

God wanted Adam and Eve to have a sense of ownership and responsibility, and by doing this, showed not only generosity but trust when He gave them dominion over the earth. He could have decided to keep everything to Himself with the comfortable assurance that nothing could ever go amiss, yet decided, out of His love for mankind, to give them the experience of this kind of ownership and everything that it entailed, such as having the ability to love Him of their own choice, and to choose to do His will. God knew that Adam and Eve would be confronted by temptation and, knowing the outcome, took the risk anyway. Let’s just say that true love involves real risks.

Ensured Freewill

“You may eat from every tree of the garden, but from the one of the tree of good and evil you shall not eat or you will surely die” (reference). True love allows others to freely express themselves in their response. This tree was not created to be hindrance for their relationship with God, but rather something that would help mature it and prove their love for Him genuine. As a symbol of their freewill, it’s possible that the tree was not inherently bad. “If you love me, you will keep my commands” (reference). Adam and Eve were not robots on command, but had the choice between life and death, intimacy or separation that ultimately shaped the course of all history. Ultimately, the tree of knowledge of good and evil was a tangible aspect of their freewill to fulfill God’s will or their own.

Desired Colaborship

God knew that Adam and Eve needed to align themselves with His will in order to live out their destinies in the earth. This would require that they overcome temptation and co-labor with Him to maintain harmony on the earth and mature in their walk with Him. “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.” For instance, though God could have done this Himself, He gave Adam and Eve the task of name all of the animals. Probably in time, God would have expanded their responsibilities to include other tasks related to their individual roles created in them. Like a Father raising children, God wanted to ensure that Adam and Eve rose up to who they were called to be.

Summed Up

All in all, we were created to be connected with God, which shows in the way that He created us. Throughout the ages, God has never changed and the connection Adam and Eve were meant to have with God is similar to what God desires for us today. In His sovereignty and love He created mankind in His image with the capacity to share intimacy with Him. Among several, this opportunity comes with the responsibility of colaborship and dominion over the earth which is guaranteed through our free will to align ours with His. Because we were created in God’s image, we innately have the capacity to do His will, just as Jesus had during His time on earth. Ultimately, we are connected to Him, not by our might or anything we have done, but by God’s love and who He is.