Genesis 1:26-31
God Creates Man in His Image
26 Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.”
27 So God created mankind in his own image,
in the image of God he created them;
male and female he created them.
28 God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground.”
29 Then God said, “I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food. 30 And to all the beasts of the earth and all the birds in the sky and all the creatures that move along the ground—everything that has the breath of life in it—I give every green plant for food.” And it was so.
31 God saw all that he had made, and it was very good. And there was evening, and there was morning—the sixth day.
John 16:31-33
Jesus Said You Will Have Troubles in This World
31 “Do you now believe?” Jesus replied. 32 “A time is coming and in fact has come when you will be scattered, each to your own home. You will leave me all alone. Yet I am not alone, for my Father is with me.
33 “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”
Have you ever stared out of a window and could not believe what you were seeing?...Blue skies, green grass, trees in bloom, the sun warming the day...One marvels at this beauty all around us, and the genius of its creative design...Nature is a thing of beauty...Creation is a thing of beauty...It is like the world has been architectured, including the who universe...The world was created through God's Word and was a Paradise...It was this Perfect Human World created by our Creator for mankind...Adam and Eve were happy in Eden, yet they had a curiosity that was spurred on by the evil one...
The perfect world in Paradise was a world that was populated only God and Adam and Eve...Yet, there was one more in Paradise...Temptation seems to be in every part of the world, even Paradise...God allowed the tempter to come and disrupt Paradise, and disrupt all the good that He had done with Creation...And God knows all things, so He had to know this would happen...
So our lives changed at that very point of being disobedient to God and suffering and evil were introduced into the world...Their Paradise was lost...And Adam and Eve were told to leave Paradise and go to a different world...A different world which would include difficult, adverse, demanding conditions...This new world which Adam and Eve had to go was a world of suffering, aging, death, and troubles at differing times...And as God watched from above, it was almost like this was His Plan, and the human condition and life now would be defined by adversity and suffering and sin...It was different from Paradise...And this world does seem to be defined by suffering, and grief, and troubles...Yet, the LOVE of God and all the beauty of Creation is all around us...