Separation
Welcome to “Separation”, the second part of the story of how to become a Christian using shapes. The shape of the heart in the picture represents God. And the shape of the circle represents humanity.
In the first chapter we saw how in the beginning God made humanity to walk with him and to be at peace. In this chapter we are going to see separation come between God and humanity. We will see the shapes of the heart and the circle moving further and further away from one another as a result of the first people called Adam and Eve disobeying God. This story comes from a book called Genesis within another book called the bible. This story tells deep spiritual truths of how the world got to be as we know it.
Introduction
Adam and Eve disobey God
Genesis 3
In the garden of Eden there was peace and harmony. Adam and Eve were content because God had provided for them abundantly. The only thing God said they couldn’t eat from was from the fruit of the tree of knowledge. But something was lurking in the garden. A snake representing the devil started talking to Eve encouraging her to eat from this tree. She ended up listening to the snake and disobeyed God. She ate the fruit and gave some to Adam as well. God went walking in the garden and they hid themselves. They were afraid and ashamed. They began to distance themselves from God. There began to be a separation people from God. This came about because of their disobedience. They turned from God and trusted lies rather than God’s word. In our picture you can see this separation beginning. The circle starts to move from the heart.
The circle begins to distance itself from the heart
The result of turning from God
Pain, frustration, conflict and death
Genesis 3
God made everything good including Adam and Eve. What followed wasn’t how God created humanity. It came as a result of people turning from God. God told Adam and Eve that that from now on Eve would have lots of pain in childbirth. Instead of a peaceful marriage there would be strife. All she would think about would be her husband and he would dominate over her. Adam’s work would be affected. Instead of seeing lots of fruit for his labour it would be very hard going and painful. Lots of obstacles would be in the way. He would die and be turned to dust again.
Banished from the garden
God still loved Adam and Eve despite their disobedience. He made clothes for them. But then God banished them from the garden of Eden. He knew if they ate from another tree called “the tree of life” things would get even worse. They would live forever and have eternity in this place of pain and separation. Even from the beginning God had another plan to restore humanity. It would happen at the fullness of time. In our picture you can see the circle moving even further away from the heart.
The circle moves even further away from the heart
What people do to try and fix the separation
We are all separate from God
What the first people did at the beginning of time, affects all of us today. Because of Adam and Eve disobeying God we all go through pain, suffering and death. We also all have in us something that wants to rebel against God like they did. The bible calls this “sin”. Because of Adam and Eve’s actions we are all far from God. It says in the bible that we have all “sinned” and fallen short of God’s glory (Romans 3:23). The result or the wages of this sin is death (Romans 6:23). This is being separated from God forever. We are separate and far from God as the circle is far from the heart in the picture.
Ways people try to bridge the gap
We were all created to be spiritual beings walking with God. There is something in humanity that seeks to find God and break through this separation. People do it in all sorts of ways. They may pray or fast, go to church or a place of worship. They may try very hard to be very good. They might spend a lot of time doing good deeds and caring for the earth, standing up for justice or helping the poor.
Jumping to the moon - we are all in the same boat.
None of the ways people use to try and bridge the gap between us and God work. No matter how hard we try in our own efforts there is still a huge separation. (Ephesians 2:8-9).
Think for a moment about jumping to the moon. If I try very hard I can jump maybe a few inches. However people that go to the Olympics can jump several feet even further with the pole vault. Which one of us can jump to the moon? Because the distance is so great the few extra feet that the Olympians can achieve doesn’t seem significant. It is beyond all of us to jump to the moon. It is the same with trying to reach God in our own strength. Some of us seem to do better than others. But we don’t realise that the distance is so great that in comparison we are all in the same boat. None of us can come into God’s presence by our own efforts. We cannot walk with Him again no matter how hard we try.
But God loves humanity and had his own plan to breach the gap (Ephesians 4:4-6). Read about God's plan and how much it cost him.
