“Paradise is lost,” reported Joe Glenn, minister for the Paradise Church of Christ in Paradise, California.  Glenn made this statement concerning the devastation wrought by the wildfire that recently burned its way through this community of 27,000 people.  Glenn and his wife, Pat, and their son, Curtis, safely evacuated the city before the fire destroyed their homes and the church building.  They escaped with their pets, some manuscripts, and “the clothes on their backs.”

Glenn told Bobby Ross, Jr. of The Christian Chronicle about their slow and scary exit out of the city: “As we were driving down the road, flames were coming across the hills. It took us an hour and a half to go what usually takes us eight minutes to go because we were in bumper-to-bumper traffic getting out of town.”

Glenn reported that as far as he knew, all 50 of the members of the Paradise Church had escaped the fire.  “One of our ladies couldn’t get to her car, so she just took her son and started running. And some people picked them up and took them down to Chico,” he said.  However, only two homes of members survived; the others were burnt up.

Ross asked, “But I understand that you consider yourself blessed that you survived?”  Glenn replied, “God is good.  Paradise is lost.  We are OK.  It is going to take many months before Paradise is rebuilt.  Keep us in your prayers!” *

Another Paradise was lost to humanity long ago.  When God created the first man and woman, Adam and Eve, He placed them in a beautiful garden paradise, the Garden of Eden.  In the garden, all of their needs were perfectly met.  They even had access to the Tree of Life which could sustain their lives for eternity.

But Paradise was lost when Adam and Eve succumbed to the temptation of Satan and ate of the forbidden fruit.  Read Genesis chapter three.  Because of sin, they were cast out of the Garden.  Suffering and death became a reality.  It is our reality today.  We also sin (Romans 3:23).  Paradise has been lost to us.

But Paradise may be regained because of Jesus Christ.  God loves us so much that He gave His Son Jesus to die on the cross for our sins (John 3:16).  Through Jesus, we can have our sins washed away and receive the gift of eternal life.  “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 6:23).

God will forgive and give eternal life to those who place their faith and trust in Jesus (Acts 16:30-31), turn from their sins in repentance (Acts 17:30-31), confess Jesus before men (Romans 10:9-10), and are baptized (immersed) into Christ for the forgiveness of sins (Acts 2:38).  He will continue to cleanse from sin those who continue to walk in the light of His Word (1 John 1:7).  Those who accept His offer on His terms will one day enter a Heavenly Paradise where they will have access to the Tree of Life and live for eternity (Revelation 2:7).

Paradise was lost because of our sin, but Paradise may be regained through Jesus.  That is a reason to be thankful, even if our earthly Paradise is destroyed.

Won’t YOU accept God’s offer of forgiveness and eternal life in a Heavenly Paradise that can never be destroyed?

-- David A. Sargent

* Information gleaned from “‘Paradise is lost,’ but minister and wife escaped deadly wildfire ‘with the clothes on our back’” by Bobby Ross, Jr. in The Christian Chronicle, www.christianchronicle.org, November 14, 2018.

David A. Sargent, Minister

Church of Christ at Creekwood 
1901 Schillinger Rd. S.
Mobile, Alabama  36695

Archived issues of Living Water can be viewed and accessed from our website at: www.creekwoodcc.org