After reading today’s passages, use the guiding content below to help you reflect, respond, and engage with one another.
In the beginning, after their sin, Adam and Eve were sent from the abundance of the garden to work the earth with hardship and suffering. In the end, clothed in His beauty and splendor, God will provide everything His people need and free them fully from the suffering that takes place here and now.
In prayer and in the comments, reflect on any images from today’s passages that were familiar to you. What images point to the different or “beyond” nature of what’s to come?
Great points about the clothing. God provides animal skins in Genesis to cover Adam and Eve in their naked son, and now in Revelation God’s people have fine linen representing their righteous acts!
Okay this may seem silly, but having one baby not terribly long ago and another on the way, something that stood out to me was the part about God intensifying women’s labor pains as part of punishment for the original sin. When Adam and Eve initially ate fruit from the tree and realized their nakedness, God in his mercy still clothed them despite their disobedience. It’s the same way with labor pains. Despite the original sin and consequences of that to include pain in childbirth, God in his mercy provided a way for modern medicine to have epidurals to lessen that pain. Again, seems silly, but I just found it to be another example of God’s love and kindness.
So true!
God shows a parent’s love. He punishes us for our sin, and yet wants what is best for us. He did not want us to sin, but we still make bad decisions. And still, he persists to show us the way and prepare a beautiful gift for us when our time comes!
❤️
God is the leader and as humans we think we know best when we don’t
Provision. God’s provision is is love.
❤️
❤ For this reason this reason they are before the throne of God, and they serve him day and night in his temple. The one seated on the throne will shelter them: They will no longer hunger; they will no longer thirst; the sun will no longer strike them, nor will any scorching heat. For the Lamb who is at the center of the throne will shepard them; he will guide them to springs of waters of life, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes. Rev 7: 15-17
Such comforting words. They fill me with hope.