OneMinuteGospel

"Back to the Garden"
from Alice Fowler

We got just a taste of the way God wanted us to live: eternally free, joyfully unashamed, holy, loved people. And we blew it because we didn’t trust him, didn’t trust that he knew best, didn’t trust him with our lives. So God started a reclamation project to lead us back to the way he wants us to live. The apex of that project was Jesus: his life, death, and resurrection. All who trust Jesus with their lives are, in essence, following him back to the garden and learning to live as eternally free, joyfully unashamed, holy, wholly loved people.

100 words

I have known Alice and her husband David since our college days. Her parents, Bob and Eileen Frescoln, were important mentors for me in my 20s. Alice spent much of her adult life as a lay person and a pastor's spouse. Then her hunger to learn led her to begin and complete seminary. That soon led to her first appointment as a pastor. Alice retired this year as a district superintendent in the Missouri Conference of the United Methodist Church.

When I read Alice's phrase, "back to the garden," it sparked a "Back to the Future" connection in my mind. Our salvation--present and future--is tied to humanity's original state, as Alice says, "eternally free, joyfully unashamed, holy, loved." This was lost because of our/humanity's/Adam&Eve's refusal to trust.The gospel is God's "reclamation project." Through trusting in Jesus, what was lost becomes found.

Next post: Friday, September 22, "A Savior Sent" from David Fowler

-st