1. God was in that home.
God spoke in that home. In Genesis, chapter 1, New International Version, the expression "and God said" is used six times (1:3, 6, 9, 14, 20, 24) and "then God said" is used three times (1:11, 26, 29). But God was not thundering from a distance. He was intimately involved_moving (1:2, KJV), blessing (1:22, 28), forming "man from the dust of the ground" (2:7), and breathing "into his nostrils the breath of life" (2:7). The picture is one of God getting His hands dirty, one of God stooping to kiss the dust in that home to achieve the crowning act of His creative work_that of making beings in His own image and likeness (1:26). God was in that home.

2. That home was built upon an authentic, intimate relationship that portrayed God's likeness.
The record is simple--and powerful--in its implications: "Then God said, `Let us make man in our image, in our likeness'. So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them" (1:26, 27).

While the Creation stories clearly honor the value of the individual woman and man, one without the other, alone (or one against or in competition with the other), does not provide the full picture.

God's image or likeness is revealed in the companionship, sharing, oneness, the equality, support, sexuality, and creativity of marriage as designed by God. God created the closest and most intimate tie. He ordained that "a man will leave his father and mother [to] be united to his wife . . . [to] become one flesh" (2:24).

3. Variety, color, and diversity filled that home.
The home of our first parents was filled with light (1:3-5) and surrounded with the beauties of rivers, lakes, seas (1:22), sky (1:6-8), and hills (1:9, 10). Their home was teeming with an immense variety of sea creatures, birds, and animals. Five times Moses records, "And God saw that it was good" (1:10, 12, 18, 21, 25).

The picture is one of God-in the midst of all creatures great and small-saying, "This is good!" And "God blessed them and said, `Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the water in the seas, and let the birds increase on the earth'" (1:22).

4. There was change and growth in that home.
God "blessed" Adam and Eve and said to them, "Be fruitful and increase in number" (1:28). New life was born. This was a growing, dynamic, changing family.

And we read: "The man and his wife were both naked, and they felt no shame" (2:25).

5. There was no sin, no death, no clothes, and no shame in that home.
In the middle of their garden home "were the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil" (2:9). "And the Lord God commanded the man, `You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die'" (2:16, 17).

Our first parents were given free choice. They were not robots. God created them in His likeness. They could choose companionship with God, life, assurance, and security; or they could choose rebellion, sin, shame, and death.

There was no shame in that perfect home.

6. Hard work and an abundance of food were part of that perfect home.
Genesis 1 tells us that God gave responsibility for the care of creation to our first parents, with fruits, grains, and nuts as their food (1:26, 28, 29).

The second chapter account gives more detail (see 2:4-6). In chapter 1 God speaks and blesses; in chapter 2 God makes, forms, breathes, and plants. And "the Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it" (2:15). Their hard work was rewarded with an abundance of good things.

And we read, "God saw all that he had made, and it was very good . . . Thus the heavens and the earth were completed in all their vast array. By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work. And God blessed the seventh day and made it holy" (1:31-2:3).

Three times we read of God blessing. He blessed the creatures of sea, land, and air (1:22). He blessed Adam and Eve (1:28). And He blessed the seventh day (2:3).

At the end of Creation week God "ceased" His work of creating, making, and planting to spend our first parents' first full day together with them. Having completed His work of creation, and having made them in His own life-giving image, God bound all together with an eternal gift of grace, the Sabbath day.

7. The Sabbath blessed that perfect Eden home.
God made perfect preparation. Everything necessary for happiness and fulfillment was provided.

The Bible records the tragic loss of this home. It then traces (as will the 10 devotionals at this General Conference session) the major events in salvation history and prophecy, applying the meaning of these events to our spiritual lives.

Rebellion in Eden resulted in the loss of that perfect home. Our first parents hid from God. Intimacy and trust gave way to accusation and blame. The image of God was corrupted and perverted. Life, vitality, color, diversity, and creativity were subject to darkness, stagnation, shame, and death. Invigorating and rewarding activity gave way to drudgery, sweat, pain, thorns, and thistles.

Even the Sabbath--given as a holy, rest, family, fellowship, and worship day_became a burden, a curse, a legalistic thing, for the Sabbath was never meant to be separated from the Lord of the Sabbath.

However, through the centuries the Sabbath has stood as a reminder of the perfect Eden home and God's creative love and grace. And the Sabbath remains as a promise of salvation and a new home.

At the end of Creation week, God rested.

Centuries later, at the end of Passion Week, Jesus again said, "It is finished." He had lived a perfect life. He, the righteous and holy One, died. He completed the work necessary for us to be able to choose a new home, and again He rested on the Sabbath day, in the tomb, in a garden!

Soon He will again say "It is finished." He will come again and open the door to our new home.

We are going home!

We are not going back. We cannot go back. We can never be the same again. We have experienced sin, evil, pain, separation, and death. And God has been through it all with us. As Paul says, we have lived as groaning Christians in the midst of a groaning world, and the Holy Spirit has groaned with us (see Rom. 8).

God has prepared a new perfect home for us.

It will not be the same. Every-thing will be new, not the same. Our first parents left the garden. We are headed for a city where we will again experience the presence of God, authentic relationships, life, vitality, beauty, no sin, and no death.

The apostle John records, "Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth. . . . And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, `Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. . . . There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.' He who was seated on the throne said, `I am making everything new!'" (Rev. 21:1-5).

The theme for this General Conference session is Almost Home!

When I was still young I learned that the expression "almost home" does not mean "We're home!" In fact, almost home can mean "We haven't made it!" and even "We're not going to make it!"

I well remember adults discussing a tragic accident that claimed lives and terribly injured some of our schoolmates and hearing the words, "And to think_they were almost home!"

In the first year of my ministry the wail of sirens on a Friday evening was followed by a distressing phone call alerting us to the tragic death of a young member returning home from Avondale College for a weekend with family. He was almost home!

Of course, there is also excitement in the words "We are almost home!" But only God knows whether we are really almost home. From our angle, we still face some major mission challenges. What about the 3.4 billion people_60 percent of the world's population_in the 10/40 window? Are they to hear the story of Jesus? At the present time only 1 percent believe in Jesus and fewer than .001 percent are Seventh-day Adventists. What about the lost millions in post-Christian, post-modern, secular, urban Europe? Only 44 percent in Europe believe that there is a God of any kind. Will they be given an opportunity? I am not sure whether we can really say "We are almost home!" But we are going home!

My father, a farmer, was a regular itinerant preacher. Childhood Sabbaths involved travel_sometimes hundreds of kilometers_on narrow country roads. The return home, after a long Sabbath, was often late and tedious. However, my brothers and I learned that if we slept, those long kilometers over dusty roads would be covered in a moment!

Perhaps that is why I can still sleep anywhere. The time would fly, and soon we would be at the farm gate with Dad calling, "Will one of you fellows open the gate?" But we remained still and quiet, and we would hear him say to Mom, "The boys must be asleep!" Which of course meant that he would get out, open the gate, drive through, close the gate, and drive across the farm to home.

Then Dad would call: "Boys, wake up. We're home!" One day our Father will call to us, "We're home!" And the gate will stand open wide, and we will enter our new perfect home. Then we will be home.

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Peter Roennfeldt is the secretary, ministerial association of the Trans-European Division.