Hell On Earth

I know this is kind of a random post, but the realization about this just came to me, and I thought I'd share it. Just a new way of looking at things.

Can you imagine living in this world after walking perfectly, blamelessly, intimately with God? Adam and Eve had a relationship with God unmarred by sin. Then, because of their choice to disobey, they lost that. God was still available for relationship, but there was something holding them back. There was interference between them. And Adam and Eve knew it. I'll bet that for the rest of their lives they were filled with shame and regret, knowing how things could have been.

These days, we have a longing for that intimate relationship with Him and at times I feel a vestige, a trace of what it used to be like. Like being a part of the human race leaves in me a part of the original humans. And it's torturous for me to live apart from what I believe could be an exciting, blissful closeness. Imagine what it would have been like for Adam and Eve! They knew what they were missing out on, because they experienced that transition from uninhibited intimacy to separation by sin. Surely that is the true definition of hell on earth.