Garden of Eden Restored

[Thompson, Darryl]

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Ellen G. White Estate, Devotional for December 12
Visit us at http://www.whiteestate.org
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Garden of Eden Restored

To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is
in the midst of the paradise of God. Rev. 2:7. 


The Garden of Eden remained upon the earth long after man had become an
outcast from its pleasant paths. The fallen race were long permitted to
gaze upon the home of innocence, their entrance barred only by the
watching angels. At the cherubim-guarded gate of Paradise the divine
glory was revealed. Hither came Adam and his sons to worship God. Here
they renewed their vows of obedience to that law the transgression of
which had banished them from Eden. When the tide of iniquity overspread
the world, and the wickedness of men determined their destruction by a
flood of waters, the hand that had planted Eden withdrew it from the
earth. But in the final restitution, when there shall be "a new heaven
and a new earth" (Revelation 21:1), it is to be restored more gloriously
adorned than at the beginning. 

Then they that have kept God's commandments shall breathe in immortal
vigor beneath the tree of life; and through unending ages the
inhabitants of sinless worlds shall behold, in that garden of delight, a
sample of the perfect work of God's creation, untouched by the curse of
sin--a sample of what the whole earth would have become, had man but
fulfilled the Creator's glorious plan. 

Adam is reinstated in his first dominion. Transported with joy, he
beholds the trees that were once his delight--the very trees whose fruit
he himself had gathered in the days of his innocence and joy. He sees
the vines that his own hands have trained, the very flowers that he once
loved to care for. His mind grasps the reality of the scene; he
comprehends that this is indeed Eden restored. 

Restored to the tree of life in the long-lost Eden, the redeemed will
"grow up" (Malachi 4:2) to the full stature of the race in its primeval
glory. The last lingering traces of the curse of sin will be removed,
and Christ's faithful ones will appear in "the beauty of the Lord our
God," in mind and soul and body reflecting the perfect image of their
Lord. Oh, wonderful redemption! long talked of, long hoped for,
contemplated with eager anticipation, but never fully understood.

>From Maranatha - Page 354