“Tohu wabohu”is a Hebrew word introduced in the Creation story in Genesis meaning “without form and void” – it is part of the story where God’s finest work in Creation is heralded – that is, God bringing something amazing out of what was formless, empty, and dark. This is Who He is. This is a picture of the redemptive work He does in our lives when we trust in Him. He is the Bringer of Something Amazing.

The God of Creation is the same Spirit of God Who moves and hovers over our lives. As in the Garden of Eden, the Enemy introduced a plaguing discontent to Adam and Eve. This discontent reminded Adam and Eve that the only lasting contentment would have occurred if they had obeyed God. Don’t we wrestle with the same reminder?

Yet God has made a way for His people to enter into a garden that is even better than Eden. He sent a deliverer – Jesus. The contentment in Jesus that we can experience does not change the parallel reality of our wilderness experience on planet Earth. We live with “thorns” that will not and cannot be removed in our earthly reality. And in His mercy, God lets us live with many painful reminders that we can only find contentment in a “divine word, a divine presence, a divine promise, a divine power.”

Our experience as believers is very much like the apostle Paul’s experience – a dual experience of the thorns of the wilderness and the contentment of the garden to come at the same time. When we suffer, of course we ask why? Suppose we didn’t ask why but instead waited expectantly for God to whisper to us His word, His presence, His promise, His power. How God’s redemptive purposes might be exposed if we received the thorns as the hand of God at work using what the Enemy meant for evil for His own good purpose.

2 Cor. 12:9 says, “…My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is made perfect in weakness…”

We can experience divine power, not in the thorn being removed, but in its being redeemed. The power of Christ will fill you so that you can trust Him no matter what circumstances you are living through. Those circumstances are both welcomed and unwelcomed reminders of the Future Garden that will be even more glorious than Eden. We live in tension with the “not yet,” but we know that our deepest longings will be filled up one day. And for now, God’s grace is sufficient.

To read more about the “Eden” experience lived out in daily life, get a copy of EVEN BETTER THAN EDEN by Nancy Guthrie.