Longing for Eden
I read a sad article in the news today. It seems that instead of enjoying a few hours of entertainment by going to see the movie "Avatar", some people are coming away from the film with depression and suicidal thoughts. They are flocking to online forums and chat rooms to lament the fact that life isn't worth living after being exposed to the land of Pandora that is represented in the film.
I haven't seen the film. From the reports I've read about it, it seems that Pandora is a type of Eden, and after seeing it, comparing it to the stark reality outside the movie theater leaves some people with a growing sense of hopelessness about their own lives and the world in general. This morning I read this in the book "Jesus, Our Man in Glory" by A.W. Tozer:
"It has been my feeling that the whole [human] race has harbored a yearning to go back to God's presence, to return to Eden. I do not mean that everyone in the race wants to be a Christian. Too many are satisfied with the world, the flesh and the devil. But when you come to really know men and women, you often will find a wistful yearning, a longing probably not identified, to know what it meant for Adam and Eve to be able to dwell contentedly in the presence of their God and Creator. In it all we see the blinding effect of sin. Men and women do not really want to be good. They do not want to submit to the will of God. Yet the longing for that Presence still is there.
But no one, unaided, has found a way back......the search for a way back has been an empty disappointment.......And then Jesus came to live among mankind. Through faith in Him, all who yearn to may enter again the very presence of God."
Unlike Pandora, Eden was real. One day, there will be a return to all that this world and mankind was created to be-but despite the yearning for it all will not see it. To be there, you have to start here: Jesus.
"I am the way, the truth and the life. No one come to the Father except through Me".
John 14:6
Some people see that as exclusionary. In fact, it is the ultimate open invitation to the only sure route that leads to the place every soul longs for whether they name it so or not. Pandora pales in comparison to the presence of God in your life today and the guarantee of Heaven in your future.
I haven't seen the film. From the reports I've read about it, it seems that Pandora is a type of Eden, and after seeing it, comparing it to the stark reality outside the movie theater leaves some people with a growing sense of hopelessness about their own lives and the world in general. This morning I read this in the book "Jesus, Our Man in Glory" by A.W. Tozer:
"It has been my feeling that the whole [human] race has harbored a yearning to go back to God's presence, to return to Eden. I do not mean that everyone in the race wants to be a Christian. Too many are satisfied with the world, the flesh and the devil. But when you come to really know men and women, you often will find a wistful yearning, a longing probably not identified, to know what it meant for Adam and Eve to be able to dwell contentedly in the presence of their God and Creator. In it all we see the blinding effect of sin. Men and women do not really want to be good. They do not want to submit to the will of God. Yet the longing for that Presence still is there.
But no one, unaided, has found a way back......the search for a way back has been an empty disappointment.......And then Jesus came to live among mankind. Through faith in Him, all who yearn to may enter again the very presence of God."
Unlike Pandora, Eden was real. One day, there will be a return to all that this world and mankind was created to be-but despite the yearning for it all will not see it. To be there, you have to start here: Jesus.
"I am the way, the truth and the life. No one come to the Father except through Me".
John 14:6
Some people see that as exclusionary. In fact, it is the ultimate open invitation to the only sure route that leads to the place every soul longs for whether they name it so or not. Pandora pales in comparison to the presence of God in your life today and the guarantee of Heaven in your future.
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