The Big Picture of God's Plan

When God created the heavens and the earth, man and woman in His image, He put us in a garden.  This wasn't happenstance, or something convenient; He planted the garden Himself.  There were things about His heart that He wanted to show Adam (and the rest of us) that couldn't be done in a library.  He had to experience it to really get it.  Adam had to feel the cool breeze blowing on his face, the birds flying above his head, the mud squishing between his toes.  Every sense was there to experience God.  They walked in the cool of the day together.  God communing with man in context, not some outer-space gas ball.  Man and Woman were on the earth to have dominion and subdue it.  What God says here in these first few chapters of the Bible is massively important.  It's the pattern for a world without sin, and the first part of the story of redemption hinges on it.  Then came the fall, but God wasn't surprised: He created all men disobedient, that His mercy might be displayed (Romans 11:32). (Side note: Guys, stop blaming Eve... God held Adam responsible.)

The second part of the big picture of God's plan is the cross.  Jesus, the sinless God-man showed us the express image of the Father, calling all to repentance so that His kingdom could come on earth.  The prophets blurred the two comings of Christ, and everyone who thought they knew something about the Messiah, but had their heart far from God totally missed it.  He came to His own, but His own didn't recognize Him (John 1:10). He showed Himself as the gentle, mild Lamb of God.

After Jesus is crucified, buried and resurrected, Peter preaches to the Jews Him "whom heaven must receive until the times of restoration of all things" (Acts 3:21).  What things are going to be restored?  ALL things: heaven, earth, our bodies, our minds, the original intent of His heart when He put us in the Garden.  The second coming of Jesus is the transition from the age where sin rules the world to the age where the perfect God-man Christ Jesus establishes His kingdom.

"The Kingdoms of this world have become the Kingdoms of our God and of His Christ."  Revelation 11:15

He's motivated by zealous love, and He's coming for a Bride who has made herself ready.  And together, they'll commune and have dominion over the earth and subdue it.  We're going back to a garden in the end, and He wants us with Him where He is.