Pilgrim’s Road Trip #1 – Goodbye, Eden

Last updated on: December 29, 2012 at 7:01 am by Michelle Van Loon

Pilgrim’s Road Trip #1 – Goodbye, Eden 2012-12-29T07:01:41-06:00 Michelle Van Loon

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

We live as exiles. We’re called to be pilgrims.

I hope to journey through Scripture chronologically in the coming year, exploring the themes of our identity and experience as exiles. I’ll also offer some helpful thoughts about how Christ can reshape that identity and reorient our journey so we live as pilgrims. J.R.R. Tolkien once wrote, “Not all who wander are lost”. Pilgrims wander with a purpose, an internal homing device that pulls them Homeward. Every exile account in the Bible contains an invitation to pilgrimage, for those with hearing eyes and seeing ears.

*** * * * * * ***

You roll out of bed, not quite rested but shoved into another day by an insistent alarm clock. You trudge to the bathroom, brush your teeth, get dressed, jump in your car and swing through the Starbucks drive-through for a grande jolt of wake up juice before you head to another day of work.

This ain’t Eden.

So many of the ordinary bits and rhythms of our lives are shaped by the effects of our exile from Eden. Our weariness may be birthed in broken bodies, divided hearts and/or souls out of communion with God. We wear clothing, something not necessary in the perfect climate and moral purity of the Garden. Even that every-morning date with a toothbrush and a squeeze of Crest is an acknowledgement of the decay that entered the world via Adam and Eve’s “let’s try it our way” disregard to the single rule God had given Adam.

That disregard – sin – tore a hole in our relationship with our Creator. Our life as exiles, as people banished from began the moment “let’s try it our way” bubbled up in the hearts of the created ones. Darkness can not exist in the light. Sin can not exist in the presence of the Holy.

Here are the first two lines in the story of our exile experience:

So the Lord God banished him from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken. After he drove the man out, he placed on the east side of the Garden of Eden cherubim and a flaming sword flashing back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life. – Gen. 3:23-24

The actions of God in response to his creation’s fall are described with intense verbs like “banished” and “drove”. Those words are the equivalent of a firmly closed door, bolted from within. Cherubim were called into a role as bouncers. That mysterious image of a sword on fire, a weapon of war in a place that had known only pure peace, serves as an additional protection for a tree whose fruit would be given to those free from death, alive in eternity – pilgrims whose faith and obedience defined their relationship with God.

As he sent Adam and Eve into exile, God promised redemption and offered protection. But toil, pain, relational struggle, sin and death went with them as well, marking them and their descendants as refugees from Eden. Consider the ways in which your everyday life is not at all like the perfect paradise of that Garden. Take a few moments to list the markers of your existence as an exile by naming the broken things in your world, the brokenness in you.

The sorrow or anger that you may have felt as you named those broken things? The sinking recognition that things aren’t the way they’re supposed to be?

Those are marks of the exile experience, but they also contain a clue, a compass of sorts. Deep in our DNA, beyond rational thought or extravagant imagination, is a longing for home. Adam and Eve had it or it wouldn’t have taken sword and cherubim to protect Eden. We have it, too. This longing contains our invitation into the new identity and life direction God longs to give to his beloved exiles. This longing is designed to transform us into pilgrims.

Which word resonates with your life experience more: exile or pilgrim? Why do you say so?

Pilgrim's Road Trip

Previous Post

December 23, 2012

Emptied himself of all but love

Next Post

January 3, 2013 Pilgrim's Road Trip #2 – Cain

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Baggage Books Calendar Church and Ministry CVID Ecclesiology Everyday Christian life Faith Falling Upward From The Margins Housing Jesus Movement's Unintended Consequences Midlife Midlife Survey #1 Midlife Survey #2 Moments and Days Out To The Margins Pilgrim's Road Trip Regret Seminary Spiritual Formation Uncategorized What's A Nice Jewish Grandmother Like You Doing In Seminary? When The Heart Waits Writing

Select a Month June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011 April 2011 March 2011 February 2011 January 2011 December 2010 November 2010 October 2010 September 2010 August 2010 July 2010 June 2010 May 2010 April 2010 March 2010 February 2010 January 2010 December 2009 November 2009 October 2009 September 2009 August 2009 July 2009 June 2009 May 2009 April 2009 March 2009 February 2009 January 2009 December 2008 November 2008 October 2008 September 2008 August 2008 July 2008 June 2008 May 2008 April 2008 March 2008 February 2008 January 2008 December 2007 November 2007 October 2007 September 2007 August 2007 July 2007 June 2007 May 2007 April 2007

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

According to 1 Peter, Jesus bore our sins in his body where?

Select your answer to see how you score.

In the garden On the mountain On the tree (cross) In the tomb