‘Ah', thought Nick, ‘here’s a pair ripe for picking’. So he slid up to them in the form of an angel of light. The plan was to invite Adam and Eve into something more that relationship with God. ‘This isn’t the half of it’ he said. ‘You ain’t seen nothing yet – wait to you get clothed with 'godness', then you will have power and equality with God’.


There you have it. Pride came before a fall – OUCH. The thing is, they fantasised, ‘we were created in God’s image, but what good is just an image when this-here angel is sent to give us the real thing’. Hindsight is a wonderful thing… the offer was illusory, unreal, bitter. These two, you and me, found that instead of more they were diminished by their loss of relationship. So they, and we, set out to make the best of a bad job. There was, after all, no way back. Dreams replaced reality, and doing was no longer the same as being.

So, many long, long, frustrating years past; and humanity left-off the simple but profound task of nurturing God’s graceful world and God’s image-filled creations. Old Nick didn’t need to strut anymore – we did it very well all by ourselves; and Creation fell into disrepair and decay. Pride continued after the fall and the world became a dessert.

It was in a dessert place, amongst the wreckage of the garden that this old devil one day found a man who bore an unmistakable likeness to Adam. The man was making trouble; overturning the old order; tending and nurturing; and, most noticeably, was living in that long forgotten relationship of communion with his Abba. ‘I need to do something quickly’ said our foe. A huge billboard was placed by the roadside; it read (in very friendly letters) ‘Bread – get in now. Why wait; one-click and it’s yours. Instant.' (And, in very small type) 'Pay later’.

‘Wrong bread’ said the man: ‘too many additives: read the label’. ‘OK’ said Nick, ‘But we need to get your show on the road'. No time to waste, folks are dying and being lost as we speak. We need something striking that will pull them in by their thousands. Hey, so let’s go up to the temple tower. I’ll get a crowd and you can chuck yourself off - it’ll be fantastic, you will float down to the ground in a basket of angel feathers and I’ll make some fireworks: can’t fail to win them. And, best of all, there is a scripture to prove it will be okay.

But the Man said ‘Don’t tempt the Lord your God’.

‘God, God, what God’ said Satan (knowing full well where this conversation was going).‘I am as good as god’ the red-faced one replied, ‘and I’ll prove it’. ‘Look, here are the kingdoms of the world; you can have it all if you bow down to me’; though he did say it with not a little bravado and a noticeable tremor in his voice.

‘Go away you little creep’ commanded Jesus. ‘Worship the Lord your God only, and serve only Him’. And at that moment, in the gate of the garden of God, the angel with the flaming sword smiled and thought ‘Not long now before I go home for tea’.

You see, dear listener, Adam and Eve may have found their independence led to a life of loss; but Jesus Christ made a way back to abundant and glorious life. And it turned out the nurturing of God’s Creation was really what it was all about. Anything else is just an illusion.