“People to meet in heaven: Adam and Eve”
Genesis 1:26-28
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus.
Back in 2003, author Mitch Albom wrote a book called, The Five People You Meet in Heaven. In October of that same year, it took the number one spot on The New York Times Bestsellers list. A year later, it was made into a movie.
The Five People You Meet in Heaven tells the story of a man named Eddie, a bitter, crotchety, 83-year-old maintenance man, who worked for a carnival called Ruby Pier, doing the same job, in the same place, that his father once did. It was a dead-end job that, according to him, “required no more brains than washing a dish.” And he’s stuck there, even though he had sworn to never follow in his father’s footsteps. Even worse, most of the people he loved had passed away and the knee injury he suffered in World War II still plagued his every day.
Fortunately, his co-workers and the children who came to visit the carnival could see beyond his prickly exterior.
But one day, in spite of having a spotless safety record, a missing car key damaged the machinery on a ride called, “Freddy’s Free Fall.” Then, to everyone’s horror, screaming children and adults first dangled, then plummeted to earth as a little girl lay sprawled, helplessly, beneath it. And moving as quickly as his crippled legs could carry him, Eddie reached out to save the girl from being crushed by the falling cart. The last thing he remembered was grasping her little hand…then, a stunning impact…then, nothing.
The next thing Eddie knew was he was floating over a vast sea. There was no fear. Only silence. Finally, when he woke up, he realized he was young again, at the Ruby Pier of his childhood. And that’s when he meets the first of the five people he would meet in heaven, a Blue Man who tells him, “There are no random acts. All lives intersect.”
And as the story continues, he meets a man who was once his commanding officer, the Captain. He meets Ruby of Ruby Pier. He meets his wife Marguerite. And he meets Tala, a child who once escaped from a burning tent in the Philippines.
As the story ends, he learns that even though his life had been simple, mundane and ordinary, what he did made a difference in the lives of many. And he learned that, no matter what, true love lasts forever.
The Five People You Meet in Heaven.
If you think about it, there will be a lot of people we’ll meet in heaven. After all, the apostle John wrote in his book of Revelation: “After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, were standing before the throne and before the Lamb.”
“A great multitude that no one could number,” he wrote. That’s a lot of people. And as the Lord provides in the timeless wonder of eternity, we’ll have the grace and the opportunity to meet them.
Who will we meet there? We have some pretty good guesses. We’ll meet a man named Abraham and his wife Sarah, who faithfully went where the Lord told them to go. We’ll meet a man named Moses who, through signs and wonders, let God’s people go. And we’ll meet a warrior named Gideon, a king named David, a prophet named Isaiah and apostles named Peter and Paul.
All of them ordinary people. Scarred people. Marred people. People who lived and died in the Lord.
But of all the people we’ll meet in heaven, we can be sure to meet the very first two—a man named Adam and a woman named Eve.
Please turn with me in your Bibles to page 2 as I read the words of Genesis chapter 1, verse 26: “Then God said, ‘Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.’ So God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.”
Let’s stop there for just a moment. Can you possibly imagine how incredibly beautiful the world must have been? Just as soon as God created the heavens and the earth and sprinkled stars across the sky, He filled the earth with plants and trees, animals, insects and creatures of every kind.
And it wasn’t just “good.” Look at chapter 1, verse 31: “And God saw everything that He had made, and behold, it was very good.” It was stunning. It was beautiful. It was absolutely and gloriously perfect in every way, the way God intended it to be.
And when all was ready, when everything was the way it should be, God chose to add one more glory to His creation, the crown of His creation—man. Look at chapter 2, verse 5: “When no bush of the field was yet in the land and no small plant of the field had yet sprung up—for the Lord God had not caused it to rain on the land, and there was no man to work the ground, and a mist was going up from the land and was watering the whole face of the ground—then the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed in his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature.”
But He wasn’t done. There was yet one more thing to do. Look at chapter 2, verse 18: “Then the Lord God said, ‘It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him.’” Then in verse 21: “So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and while he slept took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh. And the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man He made into a woman and brought her to the man.”
So there they were, the very first people, man and woman, husband and wife, soon to be father and mother.
But where would they live and what would they eat?
The Lord took care of that too. Look at chapter 2, verse 8: “And the Lord God planted a garden in Eden, in the east, and there He put the man whom He had formed.” Then verse 10: “A river flowed out of Eden to water the garden, and there it divided and became four rivers. The name of the first is the Pishon. It is the one that flowed around the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold. And the gold of that land is good; bdellium and onyx stone are there. The name of the second river is the Gihon. It is the one that flowed around the whole land of Cush. And the name of the third river is the Tigris, which flows east of Assyria. And the fourth river is the Euphrates.” And verse 15: “The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it.”
I’m sure you’ve seen some beautiful places—sunny beaches, lush forests, beautifully manicured homes and gardens. But let me tell you. This wasn’t just beautiful. It wasn’t the “Garden of Weedin’.” It was the Garden of Eden--paradise—absolutely perfect in every way. The brand new home of Adam and Eve.
We can hardly imagine how it must have been. All around them were the sights and sounds of a beautiful, brand new world--the rich smell of deep, dark earth, birds calling back and forth, singing their brilliant, morning songs, and radiant, sweet-smelling flowers, every one bursting with color, designed by the very hand of God.
And all along the path, within easy arm’s reach, were fruits and vegetables of all kinds—the sweetest of apples, the juiciest of oranges, clusters of raspberries, deep-red strawberries, lettuce, beans and onions. Everything, absolutely everything, perfect and free for the taking.
And the love Adam and Eve had for God and for each other was perfect too. Nothing came between them. Their hearts beat as one.
And as they walked and talked together in paradise, we wonder what they said. Did God ask, “So Adam, what have you been up to today?”
So Adam told him about a lamb and a calf that had just been born, of fish he had never yet seen jumping up the falls, or that he was thinking of going out tomorrow to find some gemstones, and that he thought he spotted a seam of gold. Did Adam tell God that he had gone for a swim in a pool in one of the rivers and that he and Eve had prepared a delicious new dish?
And all day, every day, there was no greed, no ingratitude, no selfishness at all. Each morning they woke up, their first thoughts were how they could please God, and each evening, their last thoughts were of His many blessings. They were never depressed, never worried, never afraid. There, in that garden, there with God, they could have everything they could ever need. It was paradise.
“But watch out,” God said. “There’s an enemy, a serpent, looking for a way to trick you, to trap you, to make you do what he wants you to do. No matter what he says, no matter what he does, stay far, far away.”
But we know all too well what happened next. For soon came the fruit, and then the Fall. And from that moment on, life would never be the same.
Someday, when we have the chance to meet these two that God first made, what should we ask them?
We could ask them what it was like to live in paradise, to live in such beauty and perfection, and to walk and talk with God? Or when they took the fruit from the tree in the center of the garden and came to realize just what it was that they had done, and that, someday, God would send His Son, what did they think? How did they feel?
In the wonder of eternity, maybe we’ll know.
Tsar Alexander III ruled over Russia from 1881 till his death in 1894. And his rule was severe. He clamped down hard on anyone who dared to oppose him, either executing them or sending them into exile in Siberia. And it had to be that way. After all, his own father had been assassinated.
But while Tsar Alexander was cruel and severe, his wife, Maria was good and kind. And one day, when she happened to notice a document that her husband had signed, she saw a list of supposed criminals and traitors whose fate lay in his hands. And beside one name, the words were written, “Pardon impossible, to send to Siberia.” And seeing her chance to save the life of an unknown prisoner, she scratched out the comma, and moved it to another place. And instead of saying, “Pardon impossible, to send to Siberia,” it read, “Pardon, impossible to send to Siberia.” And so his life was saved.
Our fate, here on earth and in eternity, doesn’t rest on a single comma, but on the life, death and resurrection of our Savior Jesus. For through His suffering in a garden and His resurrection from a garden, He has restored what was once lost in a garden. And by His grace, He promises, even us, Paradise.
All thanks be to God!
We give thanks to You, dear Father, for those we will someday meet in heaven, even Adam and Eve. Help us to rest confidently in knowing that, through Your Son, we too are saved. This we ask in His name. Amen