Is there such a thing? Was there such a thing? How can we know?

At the beginning of time, I believe God made our world perfect, even the first person, Adam. He and all the creation God had made around him were intended to live forever, Adam being given the job by God to look after God’s world. As Eve was created alongside Adam (quite literally – see Genesis 2) they both had to remember to do one thing and that was to avoid eating fruit from the tree of good and evil that was in the first garden God had made. Free will and free choice reigned in the garden for the first people. They didn’t have to obey God but they knew that God was their wonderful Creator and what he said was good for them.

Then, Eve was tempted to eat the forbidden fruit and she gave into the temptation and not only took some of this fruit but also gave some to Adam and they both ate of it and blew God’s perfect plan for them. As a result, they had to leave the beautiful garden forever and had to work hard to keep down the weeds that started to grow as they tilled the ground growing food for themselves.

As a result, their disobedience has been passed to us, so that we are born sinful people. Just watch a new born baby screaming for his/her own way – no-one tells them to do this and as they grow nobody teaches them to want their own way and do their own thing even when Mum and Dad instruct them differently. So, our present world is a fallen creation.

However, Jesus was sent by God, to rescue us and to restore the creation he made. He is a God of order and loves to put things right. Hence, at any time of the year, (not just Christmas and Easter) we remember what Jesus actually did in history which defied the natural order of birth, life and death. If one studies the Gospels in the Bible, one can see the uniqueness of Jesus. Yet, he came to do a phenomenal thing – to turn his creation back to Himself. When we earnestly seek Jesus and realise our need of Him, then we can repent and turn around and God makes us new people. “If any man be in Christ, he is a new creation, the old has gone and the new has come,” says Paul in 2 Corinthians 5:17. We can be wholly restored in body, soul and spirit and become like God first intended us to be. We can also know for sure that we will live forever just like our early ancestors were destined to do by God.

What a wonderful truth all this is to be able to share with children – simple yet profound. How can we know for sure? God’s love letter book, the Bible, tells us the truth – as God wrote it using people to write down what He wanted mankind to know and God is no liar!