When Your World Falls Apart

I preached on this subject and passage this past Sunday and plan to use this passage as the main text for a funeral I will do today. I believe there are vast amounts of people who have said or thought their world is falling apart. Their world could be a financial, vocational, relational, personal, spiritual, or ecclesiastical world. Their world could have been a home and personal memorabilia destroyed by a natural disaster. For some, a sudden loss of someone they loved dearly, whether that be a father, husband, wife, mother, brother, sister, aunt, or uncle or special friend.

When someone feels as though their world is falling apart, what they are saying is that there has been this instant shift from the good to the bad. The good they had worked for invested in, spent time with, enjoyed, and loved is in a moment, gone. This is the picture in Genesis 2 and 3. The truth is, however, God created, built, invested in, and enjoyed his perfect creation. He created man in his own image to glorify him through being his image bearers to the created order. Adam and Eve, the first couple, enjoyed perfect fellowship with their Creator as well as with one another. There was shalom over the whole earth. However, in a single moment all that was lost. Rebellion entered into the perfect created order when Eve and Adam cognitively choose to disobey God’s word and eat from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. At that moment their world fell apart.

Their world of perfection, harmony, peace, love, unity, and fellowship ended. They instantaneously realized their were naked. Rather than seeking God to fix this feeling, this change of reality, they sought to fix it themselves. When they sensed God’s presence they played a little game called Hide and Go Seek with God. Their world was now one of fear, confusion, shame, guilt, embarrassment, and chaos. Also we learn their world became one of blame. When God asked them, “Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?” They immediately began to blame the next person and even God. We learn a valuable lesson on how man usually reacts to their world falling apart. Many times man, when he experiences his world falling apart, tries to fix it, blame others, tries to ignore what’s going on, retreats, and even run away from God.

But, it is also in these times, man longs for the world to be restored, corrected, and reconciled. The good news, the gospel, is that God promises to reconcile the world to himself, to restore the world to a pre-fall state, and consummate his cosmic divine kingdom. He promises this in Genesis 3:15, and in a temporary foreshadowing way adequately clothes Adam and Eve’s nakedness by using animal skin.

Let us remember today, that if we believe, perceive, or feel that our world is falling apart in someway, that the Lord one day will completely restore and redeem this world and man (who has trusted in Christ) to himself. Also, make the gospel of Jesus Christ the anchor of your soul – as you navigate through those times when the destructive forces of life and of a falling world impact you. Remember: God will bring your through, God will seek you, God will clothe you, God will never leave you nor forsake you, and that God loves you.