Missing What You Didn't Get?

by Alexandra Copeland

In Isaiah 55:8(NLT), God tells us, “My thoughts are nothing like your thoughts,” says the LORD. “And my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine.” Although I know this to be true, it still amazes me every time I think about it. Our minds are incapable of fathoming God’s total and complete magnificence. In Revelation 22:13(NLT), He said, “I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last.” This is mind-blowing beyond belief. Heavenly Father has given us the element of time as a way of measuring life. However, God is outside of time and can never be limited by it. This is how big and great He is. He doesn’t need the things that we do, but He has created all of these extraordinary wonders to address our needs. Yet, there are so many of us walking around every day feeling very empty. This has been a conundrum since the very beginning.

In the Book of Genesis, God takes us back to where it all started. Genesis 1:1 tells us that in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. Genesis 1:26 says that He created Adam in His own image and then breathed the breath of life into him. Heavenly Father plopped Adam in the middle of paradise and didn’t withhold any good thing from the first man. However, there was something God told Adam not to do. Genesis 2:16-17(NLT) tells us, “But the LORD God warned him, “You may freely eat the fruit of every tree in the garden—except the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. If you eat its fruit, you are sure to die.” God then made Adam a wife, Eve, and together they enjoyed every good thing imaginable. 

We don’t know how long Adam and Eve lived on earth before the devil entered the scene with all the drama, but we do know that the notion of measuring time began as soon as they disobeyed God’s command. Think of it, Adam and Eve were well taken care of in the Garden of Eden. They were ‘forever beings’ and had everything they’d ever need. They had no knowledge of anything resembling death, but the devil introduced this thing called ‘doubt’, and everything went downhill from there. 

One of the lessons that we’ve learned from Adam’s and Eve’s debacle is that with great blessing and privilege comes great responsibility. Jesus Christ tells us this in Luke 12:48 where he said, “To whom much is given, much is required.” Respecting the brilliance of God begs us to also respect His laws. They govern the way things work down here. Stewardship is trademark with Heavenly Father. We’re His sons and daughters, therefore stewardship ought to be trademark with us. We don’t get to skimp on this, and we won’t get a pass on it either. If we’re not prepared to give of ourselves, we are not prepared to receive. In many cases, this means we are not spiritually prepared to handle the blessings we seek. 

God told Adam that the day he’d eat the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, he would surely die. We are made in God’s image, and we’re three-part beings just like the Godhead. 1Thessalonians 5:23 tells us we’re spirit, soul, and body. Physically, Adam lived some nine hundred years after he disobeyed God, so the physical death came later, but spiritual death—the most consequential, came instantly. Adam lost his connection to God.

We walk around feeling that we’re missing something we didn’t get, but through Jesus Christ we’ve received all that we need to live a more than abundant life. John 10:10 tells us this. Jesus gave us back what Adam and Eve lost. Colossians 2:9-10(NLT) says, “For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily; and you are complete in Him, who is the head of all principality and power.”  Like the first man and woman, the degree to which we experience the fullness of God is dependent upon our trust in Him. When we fulfill our obligation to nurture our relationship with Heavenly Father, and to live by the loving—sharing—giving example of Christ, God promises that our lives will not be empty. He has filled them through the fullness of Christ, and the least we can do is to be good stewards of what we have received.■ 

Scripture quotations marked (NLT) are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.