GOOD, NOT PERFECT

A new friend gave me a book which he thought would complement my dissertation studies: Trent Hunter and Stephen Wellum's Christ from Beginning to End: How the Full Story of Scripture Reveals the Full Glory of Christ.

It's a wonderful book and I will certainly quote it in my work.

At a third of the way in, I have a single quibble - minor, yet important. 

In discussing the creation of Eve, the authors write, "A perfect Adam, in a perfect place, and in relationship with a perfect God, yet he still needs someone to complement him". (p.77)

The point is valid. My quibble is with one of the uses of the word "perfect".

It might have been Dr. Tim Mackie who pointed out that Scripture calls the Garden of Eden "good", but never "perfect".

After all, if the place were perfect, what sort of work would the Garden receive at the hands of Adam and Eve?

To me, a large part of the beauty and wonder of a garden is the skill and effort required to keep weeds and decay at bay. 

I think this is central to what the role of Image of God involves - cultivating beauty and pushing back the chaos and darkness that grows like a wild and destructive jungle. 

(It just would have been easier work if the humans had resisted the forbidden fruit. After their banishment, they still had to work, but now they were outside and there were thorns aplenty.) 

The Garden of Eden was good from the start, but Adam and Eve were given the privilege of serving with God to perfect it and push the boundaries outward, bringing the wilderness into submission to God's will.