I have been reading about stories and mythology. In most creation stories man is in harmony with nature. My husband is part Native-American and many of their stories speak of being at one with nature, but most of the monotheistic religions aren’t like that. They speak of man being against nature: Adam and Eve being expelled from the Garden of Eden type of thing. I have been tried to understand why.
Then, I recently saw some videos critiquing movies. There’s a trend in modern movies to have a hero who is like a “Jesus” figure where everything just comes naturally to them. There’s no struggle to become the best version of themselves because they are already a special perfect person. In the superhero movies, the superheroes might struggle, but they don’t really have to struggle to attain their powers, they just are born with their abilities, or they are just given to them. The movie audience is given this idea that everyone is born with special unique capabilities, and we can all be heroes in our own right. Except that’s not how life works.
Maybe the reason why the monotheistic religions have a creation story where humans are expelled from paradise is to explain that although we are born with God’s grace and we are His perfect creation, the circumstance of having free will and just being alive means that life is a struggle, and we aren’t meant to live easy lives in a perfect garden of bliss.
Is it possible we got the allegory wrong? This idea of the perfection and being born with God’s grace in the right place with all of our needs met. It doesn’t have to be in nature or in a garden. It could be anywhere. It could be any utopia that we could imagine. It could even be the heaven people imagine with clouds, angels, and streets paved in gold. Yet, in any of those places, human beings don’t have free will. They don’t struggle because they do exactly as God tells them. Once humans are given free will, they are expelled from that utopian bliss into a world of struggle where even God’s more perfect creation, His only Son, Jesus will struggle, suffer, and die. That is the human condition.
God’s love can’t save us from physical death; it never could, but His love makes life amazing, miraculous and meaningful. I am one of God’s perfect creations and He does love me perfectly, but I am not a superhero that was born special and meant for great things. I am God’s servant meant to do His will. I am here to struggle, suffer, and die, but also to love and experience life and all the miracles that it brings. My life doesn’t depend on my path starts or how it ends, but on the journey itself.
My faith saved me. May God’s peace reside in all of our hearts.
