Longing for Things to Be Good Again?

How could we not long for it?
We are paradise people.

Nonstop, we ache for east of Eden—naked and unashamed, the place of abundance, wholeness, and peace. That longing runs deep in us. Like the children of Israel—more than two million people wandering through sand and barren rock—homeless, displaced, and searching for a place to belong. A land to call home.

When will life be good again?

There were no natural sources of food in that desert. Water was as scarce as it is on the surface of the moon. Scripture describes it as “a barren wilderness—a land of deserts and pits, a land of drought and death, where no one lives or even travels” (Jeremiah 2:6, NLT).

Amazingly—and painfully—that wilderness still feels familiar.

Watching the graphic videos of the killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti left me disturbed and deeply saddened. We are fractured as a nation. Divided. Grieving. Longing to relive a past that feels safer than the present. I understand Paul’s exhortation—“Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good” (Romans 12:21). I believe it. Yet I struggle to feel good about anything while walking through this desert, aching for Eden.

Like Israel, I wonder—was there a deeper message in the wilderness beyond wandering, complaining, rebellion, and unbelief?

Hebrews offers this sober and hopeful counsel to all who would listen and live:

“See to it, brothers and sisters, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God. But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called ‘Today,’ so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness. We have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original conviction firmly to the very end” (Hebrews 3:12–14).

Grace to you,
Cedric
TraditionalWriter@yahoo.com