5-Minute Trekker's JournalSample

RETURNING TO THE ORIGINAL STORYLINE

The Biblical account of the first man begins in a garden: "Now the LORD God had planted a garden in the east, in Eden, and there he put the man he had formed" (Genesis 2:8). The garden was designed to be a good place for man, a place he could enjoy and cultivate: "The LORD God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it (Genesis 2:15)."

God planted all kinds of trees and brought beasts of the field for man to name. And God created a companion for the man so that together the man and the woman would fulfill God's purposes for them. From the very beginning, God created the earth for man's dominion. Only when the man and the woman defied God's one prohibition did a very different story begin to unfold.

At the center of the new story is betrayal, for where there was harmony, now we find rebellion; where there was a home, now we find exile; and where there was abundance, now we find hard labor and travail.

The original storyline was radically changed by one act of thoughtless defiance. The new story is the tale that culminates as a sacrificial act of love on a cross on a mound outside the gates of Jerusalem. At that moment, all men and women once again could enter the original storyline that had its origin in Eden.

Journal your thoughts and feelings on today's readings.

Spend time in prayer about what you wrote down.