Original Creation Is Both Good and Limited

The creation story in Genesis tells of God’s original design which was good in all ways. And yet, scripture is clear that God’s picture of shalom in Genesis was limited. Like a seed that gives rise to a flourishing tree, Genesis lays the groundwork for the incredible extravaganza of full shalom when the kingdom comes in its fullness. Paul imagines this fullness when he writes how “no eye has seen and no ear has heard and no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him” (1 Corinthians 2:9).

In Genesis we see just the man and the woman - fully blessed, but only the beginning of God’s full plan. By the time we get to Isaiah in the Old Testament, we see that those who do not fit the gender and sexual identities of the first man and woman are invited into the kingdom as it comes in all its fullness:

To the eunuchs who keep my Sabbaths, who choose what pleases me and hold fast to my covenant—to them I will give within my temple and its walls a memorial and a name better than sons and daughters; I will give them an everlasting name that will endure forever. - Isaiah 55:4-5

And the mono-cultural picture of Genesis 1 similarly explodes into a diversity of human beauty by the time we get to Revelation:

There before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and before the Lamb. - Revelation 7:9

It’s hard to conceive of what heaven’s like, but perhaps even from these short visions of it we might want to rethink how we pray and work today. Jesus taught us to pray for God’s kingdom to come on earth as it is in heaven - and if these are pictures of heaven, then certainly that’s what Jesus is up to creating here on earth. How might you be a part of bringing the Kingdom of Heaven to earth today?