Gen 3:22-24: Adam and Eve banished from the garden

"And the LORD God said, “The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil. He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever.” ²³ So the LORD God banished him from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken. ²⁴ After he drove the man out, he placed on the east side of the Garden of Eden cherubim and a flaming sword flashing back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life."

3 chapters was all it took for man to forfeit the opportunity to have eternal bliss in relationship with God to spend a few moments in depravity with something in the flesh. 3 chapters was all it took for man to destroy the spiritual, blissful idea that God had of living throughout eternity with the object of His affection. God's voice must have shook with emotion as He asked, "what is this you have done?". And so God, filled with hurt, drove out the man and " placed on the east side of the Garden of Eden cherubim and a flaming sword flashing back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life."

Have you ever had a good relationship go bad? Have you ever invested your time, your energy, your emotion, your passion, in someone who failed to reciprocate it? Have you ever loved someone with all your heart who turned you away for another? Do you feel the grief that emerges when love is not reciprocated and the mourning it produces? The sense of rejection is so painful, bleeding, glaring and degrading that it often feels as though there will never be any light at the end of the tunnel. Have you ever then asked God why? Or even blamed Him? God understands.

This is a God who had painstakingly and lovingly put together a home called earth, and a retreat called the garden of Eden, where he could set a man and woman in a controlled environment in which he might express His love. And He was rejected. The rejected God looked at Adam and Eve, and out of the depths of anger and overwhelming pain that is only known by a rejected lover, God said, "Get out!" You only ever get that angry and hurt when you have loved that much.

And all that remains are memories of a lost opportunity.
- the fellowship
- the intimacy
- the Garden of Eden and the provision
- the delight and intimacy of love
- the praises and worship that should have erupted from the human heart

So no matter how much hurt, how much pain, how much rejection you've gone through, it's ok. Because God's been there for us, because of us, before. And in spite of everything, He's managed to turn around what seemed like a hopeless downward spiral, arrested it, and given us a clean slate to move forward, free from the chains of the past, free from regrets and missed opportunities. He's set us free.

Happy Easter!