As a wannabe Bible scholar, I looked up on the Google where in the Bible you could find the word "normal." Don't all bonafide Bible scholars do that? Depending on what translation you look at, there are a couple of mentions of words translated as "normal" but not very many. I guess the closest thing to what we think of as normal might be customary. The way in which things are carried out according to the custom or habit of the person being described. As in, Jesus went to the temple as was his custom. Like that. The most elemental sense of what normal was supposed to be was probably the Garden-of-Eden-situation. Adam and Eve hanging out (pun unintended but kinda funny), snacking on fruits and vegetables; taking long walks with God after work. Work being the multiplying and subduing job description from Genesis 1. Imagine orchard-tending-gardening-fishing-bird-keeping-ranch-hands. It was probably a busy but very satisfying life. Until the snake and all. Since then it's been pretty much downhill with a few peaks here and there. We don't really express it as such but I sort of think when we long for normal, we are really longing for Eden. Pre-snake. Maybe we don't even realize it, but the normal that we pine for is pretty puny compared to first-normal.
I can't wait til I can park in the beach lot to go for a walk.
I can't wait til we can go out to eat and sit inside a restaurant again.
I can't wait til we can go to the grocery store and see shelves full of toilet paper again.
I can't wait til I get my hair cut and colored (unless you've embraced the gray - timely move on my part, huh.)
None of these things are inherently bad, but it seems like we are settling for things that are a far piece from Eden and calling them paradise. Maybe we are looking at this all wrong...maybe instead of longing to get back-to we ought to be straining for what we are going to get-on to. What if we took up the original job description and carried it forward: fill the earth; subdue the earth. Add something of value to this life and maintain what has been entrusted to us. We still walk on the beach and eat in restaurants and buy toilet paper (in moderation) and visit the salon every 6-8 weeks with a standing appointment. But, we put an Eden-twist on them. Walk on the beach and savor the presence of God; eat at a restaurant and honor the good neighbors who cook and serve the food; purchase what we need and, instead of stocking up and hoarding, use the excess to help fill someone else's belly and pantry; slip into the sweet stylist's chair and care for the one who's treating us to such a luxury even as we care for ourselves. It just seems more in keeping with the original normal - Eden. And at the same time prepares us for the new-normal.
The new-normal I'm looking forward to is not the normal where more people continue to work from home and wash their hands a lot; kids go back to school and wash their hands a lot; business owners open their doors and wash their hands a lot. (The hand-washing thing is here to stay, folks.) The ultimate return to normal, in my mind, will be the reunion of Creator and creation. The resumption of in-person God-walks and tables groaning with nature's extravagant bounty. The getting-back-together with those gone ahead. The absence of snake-induced-pain and tears. That normal is what I'm pining for, straining for. All the loveliness of this world is just a shadow of what is ahead. And it is worth every slogging New-Jerusalem-facing step through the mess of now to get to the beautiful then. Selah.
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