In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. God saw that the light was good, and he separated the light from the darkness. God called the light “day,” and the darkness he called “night.” And there was evening, and there was morning—the first day.  (Genesis 1:1-5 NIV)

And so on and so on. Each of the six days of creation the Lord makes something good. He created land, oceans, plants, trees, sun, moon, stars, and creatures of the sea, birds, land animals and finally people. The Lord made all of those things and he made them good. That’s why we long for a return to Eden. It was good.

But people are never truly happy when things are good. We’ve got to mess things up. And that’s exactly what Adam and Eve did. Perfection wasn’t good enough and so like the rest of us they wanted what they were told they could not have. So they ate the fruit that the Lord told them not to eat. Sin and suffering entered the world because of their rebellion.

This brings me to a moment I had when we got the news that we lost our baby. In the midst of the pain and sadness my mind looked for some comfort. I found some peace in knowing that we are living in a world we were not designed to live in. We were made for a different world, a perfect world. We were not designed to live in this decay where suffering and pain. We were meant to live where there are no tears. That is of great comfort to me, that brings me peace. What brings me hope is knowing that there is a great day coming, a day of restoration when things are set right.

Every valley shall be raised up, every mountain and hill made low; the rough ground shall become level, the rugged places a plain. And the glory of the LORD will be revealed, and all people will see it together. (Isaiah 40:4-5 NIV)

Amen.