Theology with a Four-Year-Old

We were driving home after our usual Monday morning, Daddy-Daughter coffee date (when I study for the next Sunday and Jáel does her reading apps on the iPad). Then what seemed out of no where came the comment from the four-year-old in the back seat:

“Hey Dad, I want to race Jesus in the garden!!!”

-Jael

A Simple Yet Profound Statement

“What garden???” you might wonder…

Is it the vegetable garden in our backyard…accompanied by a four-year-old imagination?

Did she recently hear the song, “I come to the garden alone”??

Nope

She was referring to a story book that we often read called: “The Garden, the Curtain, and the Cross ” (if you are a parent, grandparent, or you have kids in your life whom you wish to see grow in their knowledge of the Bible…this is a book to get right here [ages like 3-10]).

We read that book more than any other. It tells of God’s creating Adam and Eve. We read:

“In the Garden…there was nothing bad, ever…and no one sad…and best of all God was there…”

The story continues to tell us of Adam’s sin and how they rebelled. Then that portion of the story reaches this conclusion:

“God calls this ‘sin’. Sin spoils things. So sin has no place in God’s wonderful garden…God said, ‘Because of your sin, you can’t come in [to the garden].”

This children’s book connects this early story of Eden (Genesis) with the New Eden (Revelation 21-22…). The gospel is explained of how Jesus came to” take our sin so that we can now go in [to the New Garden].” It closes with these words about life in the New Garden (aka New Creation as in Rev. 21 & 22):

“We will see God and speak to God and just enjoy being with God…just as he planned.”

This book has made the idea of heaven and eternity tangible for my young four-year-old, for which I am grateful.

I am grateful for this is more than a child’s story and kid’s fiction. When we compare the Eden story in Genesis 1-3 with Revelation 20-22 we see many similarities. The similarities serve many purposes, but for our purposes I will set forth how John is trying to demonstrate the feel of the New Creation by using language that reminds us of Eden…a garden.

Note:

• A river runs through (Gen. 2:10; Rev. 22:1)
• A tree of life (Gen. 3:22; Rev. 22:2)
• Fellowship between God and man (Gen. 2:15-17; Rev. 22:3)

If we had more time we could note the various nuanced parallels made by John. In short John wishes us to see that our eternal home will be similar to the paradise of Eden, but far better.

So What???

Remember that race that Jael wants to have? I think many of us to use such a view of heaven. We need a view of heaven, more specifically, the New Creation that is a little more earth like.

What do I mean?

I do not mean to demean or desecrate our thinking or understanding of our future and eternal home. However, I believe we often forget how tangible and earth like it will be. Jael’s comment hits the nail on the head.

As we road home I told her that I truly believe she will one day have a chance to race Jesus down those streets of gold. Remember, that we will be in real-deal glorified bodies that move, taste, experience, walk, live, etc.

The innocence of Adam and Eve’s existence is but a shadow of what we will experience. They lived in a tangible world which was an example of the eternal home Jesus has promised us. We will have ears that hear, eyes that see, hands that grab, noses that smell, tongues that taste, and God only knows to what degree of experience.

It will be an earth in which the curse and presence of sin has been removed. As Paul said, “Where sin increased grace abounded all the more” (Rom. 5:20). That is to say, that as far and as invasive as the curse was, grace will go even further with greater effect. This world has marks of sin and sadness all around, most of which we don’t notice because we are so accustomed to them. However, this New Earth will be filled with grace and righteousness, peace and gladness so that they are the new felt reality of life.

The Bible gives us reason to see heaven as more than just sitting around the throne…will we worship in song as we never have? Yes! Yet, will we explore the beauties of God’s creation?? Yes? In short, all of the physical and tangible blessings that our first parents enjoyed in Eden will be enjoyed most fully in the age to come and for eternity.

This ought to excite us to go there. There God will provide avenues and opportunities to enjoy creation as we never have before. We will see sunrises over mountain ranges and its reflections on blue lakes. Our bodies will be in a condition that far exceeds the strength of our youth.

We are designed to engage and enjoy pleasure, and so we shall in that New Garden.

Let me ask you: What place in the world have you seen pictures of…yet will never visit? Not the time or money…

Whatever the beauty or attraction of that place will be far surpassed in the New Garden. Not only will our eternal dwelling surpass the beauty of that one place you so long to visit, it will also be accessible. The New Creation will be a place in which every part of us (body, heart, and mind) will be awake and alive.

So will Jáel have that race? I think so…and I think I’ll be running with them through the hills of that blessed land.