Thoughts from Camp - Day 7 - God's Plan All Along

"Seek God until He breaks your heart, and then preach from the bottom of your broken heart." This 

is what I often say to those I mentor. So with seven weeks of speaking, writing devotions and heading up ministry at a summer camp, I anticipate being challenged, stretched and broken as the weeks roll on. Each day I will post some lessons to be learned from the devotions and messages we have studied as a camp.

The goal has always been restoration. What Adam had in the garden – the perfection, the relationship, the reflected image of God – that is what God has been working to restore from the moment Adam bit the fruit. God created the world perfect and when it became imperfect, God's desire was still to have a perfect world. It wasn't like He was content to have His world remade by one of His creation. The relationship He had before the fall was what He wanted back. So God made a promise to Adam – one day, someone would come who would crush the head of the serpent. Essentially, someone was going to restore what happened before sin entered.

And so this story begins to unfold, from Genesis 3 right to the end of the book, of God's work to restore to humanity what He had with Adam. So God appears to Abraham, and he tells Him He wants to make a covenant with him. God wants to make Abraham's descendants into a country – a people set apart for God. But what interest does God have in a holy people? He wants to restore that relationship He had with Adam – that perfection. So God promises Abraham a son. Why? Because someday someone is coming who is going to restore what happened before sin entered.

And then God appears to Moses and gives him instructions to build a tabernacle. All God is saying is, 'remember what we had back in Eden? I want that again.' So they build this tabernacle, and its made out of the same materials that were found in the garden. And at the center is a room that is a perfect cube, just as the garden was. And a cherubim-curtain guards the entrance to this room. And then we read about heaven and we see the same thing – a perfect cube, made of gold. Why? Because all God was saying was, 'remember what we had back in Eden? I want that again.'

So eventually God sends His son, Jesus. And we find out that this is the one we were anticipating. The one who would crush the head of the serpent had arrived. And He offered restoration to what Adam had in Eden. Someday in heaven, those who are in Christ can enjoy the relationship Adam had in the beginning.

So what is God's plan now? What does He want? The same thing He has always wanted. We are still a part of the story that has been unfolding throughout history – the story of God redeeming man back into the relationship He made us for in the first place.