One year Sherry and I planted a garden. It fed a multitude — a multitude of squash bugs, tomato worms, etc.

So this Garden of Eden thing is hard for me to grasp. By faith, however, I believe God’s garden was better than mine.

Genesis 4 and 5 records the time between Adam and Noah. There we find two murders, plus a boring genealogy. We see who was born, and how long people lived (nearly a millennium in some cases).

But I think the lesson is this: All but one generational report ends with these words, “and he died.”

Stunning! With Cain’s murder of Abel, physical death exists for the first time. Then we find that death occurs not only by man’s immediate hand, but by the simple passage of time. Maybe we take this for granted today, because our experience tells us it’s inevitable.

There’s one exception. “Enoch walked with God, and he was not found, for God took him.” Nestled among all the natural deaths, we find one man who “walked with God” (as had Adam before the fall). We are left to conclude that God gave him something besides death.

This week, Christians historically confront the story of death head-on. Death… where God’s sustaining gift of animation is sucked out of a physical body, to be sent… where? Who knows, unless God tells us?

God does, in scripture and directly through the words of Jesus.

Jesus walked on earth with God in heaven. Jesus died — then He didn’t. Like Enoch, “he was not found.” The grave could not hold Him.

Because He did, we too may overcome spiritual death and see God as one who walked with Him, if we surrender our self-sufficiency to Him. It’s a tall order, one we cannot satisfy on our own. As God told Cain, “sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is for you, but you must rule over it.” Pride wants to hold us back.

But it need not.

“Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, he was buried, he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures” 1 Cor. 15:3-4.

He is risen! May this week be one whose truth rises and rules in our hearts as well.