I wonder how long Mr. and Mrs. Adam lived in the garden. Was it six months, six years, six hundred years, or longer?

Why would anyone mess with the garden?

I don’t know about Satan’s origin. In the garden he just appears. He appears in a form familiar to man. He takes the form of a snake—at the time another perfect form of life created by God. To appear in the form of a rabbit or a puppy would have been no different. God created the serpent and declared it good. Man named it and cared for it. Satan uses a good and perfect creation of God to introduce himself to man.

I do wonder if Satan made a deal with the serpent, letting him in on his plan. Should he agree, the serpent was an animal that would serve well in Satan’s death-plan. His venom used for Satan’s purpose would certainly cause untold death through the course of future history. All that lacked was for woman and man to take the bait.

One hint at his nature is the Scripture account of God’s servant Job. Satan wanders in and out of celestial meetings with God. God is aware of Satan’s opposition to good. The narrative of the entire book of Job is the struggle between God and Satan. To whom will Job prove loyal? Will good win out? It’s as if God knows the answer but is still willing to give Satan a shot at the good man Job.

In the Genesis account of creation, Satan took his shot at the first man and woman. Created by God for His companionship, they were nothing less than God’s likeness walking on the face of earth. The garden was pure and free from sin. What a joy it must have been for God to visit with His man creation in the cool of the evening.

Evil existed in the form of Satan before the creation of man.  Adam and Eve could stay free from Satan as long as they kept their distance from the tree—the one with the fruit whose peeling concealed the knowledge of evil. Man’s obedience to God by trusting him in this one command to refrain from the fruit of one tree would allow him to live in eternal peace and harmony with the creator.

We have no indication of Satan receiving permission from God to mess with the garden.  Yet, mess with the garden he did. Thousands of years later, we awake each day to make the decision between good and evil because Satan messed with the garden. Although, we commit to following the God of creation, Satan loves to inflict pain, hurt, betrayal, evil, and death on me and on the world. Satan did a number on God’s creation when he messed with the garden.

The Bible begins with the book of Genesis and ends with the Revelation of Saint John. It tells the story of God’s steps toward restoration of His perfect garden and moves history toward the time of his total domination of Satan and evil.

How I look forward to the completed restoration in whatever form God chooses. I have witnessed enough of the alternative world to let it loose with all of its defects. I have no desire to live forever in a fallen state in a fallen world. I want to go back to God’s original dream for His creation.

What are your reflections? Stay tuned.