A Tale of Two Gardens (and Some Clothing)

Have you ever noticed that the Bible begins and ends with people in a garden? In both gardens, there is fruit and health and life, and in both gardens, in Genesis 2 and Revelation 22, clothing is part of the scene. Coincidence? I don't think so. Let's look at it together.

In the creation story (Gen. 2:8-9) Adam and Eve are placed by God in a garden they didn't plant, with fruit they didn't create, and all they have to do is 'tend' the garden and eat the fruit. In Gen. 3, Adam and Eve stop trusting God and they realize they are naked. Graciously, God gives them clothing (verse 21) to hide their shame. (In the culture of the Bible, nakedness was a symbol of shame. Invading armies would take prisoners, then strip the people of all their clothes to make them feel ashamed and vulnerable.)

The Bible talks about two kinds of clothing God gives us:  righteous clothing, and immortality. Paul uses both metaphors:

• Galatians 3:27 for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. (That new clothing, perfect righteousness from Christ, is given free of charge by God, as the permanent replacement for our own unrighteousness.)
• 1 Corinthians 15:53-55 When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: “Death has been swallowed up in victory.” (see also 2 Corinthians 5:2).

John, the author of Revelation, also the metaphor of white clothing for righteousness:

• Revelation 6:11 Then each of them was given a white robe, and they were told to wait a little longer, until the full number of their fellow servants...were killed just as they had been.
• Rev 7:14  Then he said to me, “These are the ones who died in the great tribulation. They have washed their robes in the blood of the Lamb and made them white."
• Rev. 19:7-8  The bride of the Lamb (Jesus) is given a wedding dress of clean and white linen, the righteousness (some translations have "righteous actions" but this righteousness is a gift, not something we create by working).
• Rev 3:15-19:  people are corrected by Jesus for spiritual laziness, and told to obtain clothing so they will not be ashamed for being naked spiritually.

Finally, in the end of all things, humanity lives in a garden once more, with never-ending fruit, wearing the clothing of eternity and righteousness given by God:

Rev 22:1-3 Then the angel showed me a river with the water of life, clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb. It flowed down the center of the main street. On each side of the river grew a tree of life, bearing twelve crops of fruit, with a fresh crop each month. 

Sounds pretty good to me. How about you? It's all a gift from God, so why not open your arms and heart, and accept the whole thing?