Eden was full of gifts—beautiful surroundings, perfect health, no pain nor suffering, and no death. The greatest gift of all, the gift that made all the other gifts possible, was being able to walk alongside God. I’ve found myself at times longing for this very thing, the ability to walk next to my Creator, the ability to walk alongside the One that loves me more than anyone else ever will, the One who is love Himself.

Walking with God yields a variety of good fruits—peace, joy, patience, and love, just to name a few. Walking with God is the very essence of Eden, the place where we had all of these fruits in abundance. In Eden, walking with God wasn’t a struggle but just came naturally. I suppose it could be said, our purpose here on Earth is to learn how to walk with God again, to find our way back to this place called Eden.

The more I long for this place and the more I long to walk next to God, the more I find myself longing to walk away from the things that cause me to sin. Sin is what leads to pain, to suffering, and turmoil. Sin is what removed us from Eden in the first place. The truth is though, sin is what keeps us from returning to paradise. We can’t walk alongside God if we aren’t obedient to God and surrendered to His authority and His will.

No matter how hard we try in this life, we will always fall short. We will always sin. Though this is true, this very mentality is also what keeps some people stuck; it keeps them from trying. See, it’s not all or nothing; it’s not black or white. Rather, the more we sin, the further we travel away from Eden, and the further we push ourselves away from God. Though we will never be perfect, we must never stop trying to empty our lives of sin. This is what it looks like to walk with God on Earth. Though we may never live to see Heaven on Earth, our goal should be to get so close to Eden that there is only a thin veil separating us, a thin veil that will be lifted when we leave this Earth, when God receives His bride and we finally return to Eden.

I hope you’re inspired to take a walk with God today, allowing Him to lead you away from sin and into peace, joy, love, patience, kindness, faithfulness, goodness, gentleness, and self control. Remember to be patient with others as well as yourself. After all, we are all born lost, and we are all just trying to find our way back home.