As soon as things go sideways, God makes it clear that He has a plan to put everything back in order. It won’t come through a bolt of lightning, a reset of humanity, or a divine re-ordering of creation, it will come through this unnamed “He.” Who is this He that will crush the head of Satan, putting death to death once and for all?

“This was all a part of God’s plan.” I believe this is one of the most well-intended but totally unhelpful notions offered up to the grieving, especially those with invisible grief. Many don’t realize what they’re actually saying when these words come rolling off the tongue. We don’t stop to consider that brokenness was never God’s desire. That when God created in Genesis 1, He actually said it was “good.” If God needs to bring about bad, in order to accomplish good, there are fundamental issues with the perfect character of God, not to mention our ability to trust Him. So, do we have a cruel God who is bringing pain and grief in order to accomplish His plans, or could it be that we have a broken and cruel world that has gone completely sideways? 

The answer to the question above will dramatically shape the way we live with, and think about, both our relationship with God and our grief. Stay with me for a minute while we go back to the beginning in Genesis 1, God creates everything and He declares without hesitation that it is good. What we see, at least for a span of time, is creation living in perfect harmony, exactly as intended. No violence, no pain, no offense, absolutely no brokenness whatsoever. God walking with humanity and humanity walking with God, as the creator intended (Gen. 3:8). All is well, and then the serpent appears. As we talked about briefly before, Satan in the form of the serpent, is able to plant a seed of doubt in Eve’s mind. “Did God actually say?” (Gen. 3:1). As Eve processes, Satan offers his own conclusion: “You will not die. For God knows that when you eat of [the tree] your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil” (Gen. 3:4-5). As Adam and Eve both eat of the fruit, everything changes. “Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew they were naked” (Gen. 3:7). What once was perfect and good is no more. A life for humanity in perfect communion with God, full of ease and endless joy, now marred by sin that brings pain, sorrow, and doubts into the equation.

The effects were immediate and widespread. 

The Lord God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this, cursed are you above all livestock and above all beasts of the field; on your belly you shall go, and dust you shall eat all the days of your life. I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.” 

To the woman he said, “I will surely multiply your pain in childbearing; in pain you shall bring forth children. Your desire shall be contrary to your husband, but he shall rule over you.”

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