A Florida man has been caught trying to self-isolate on a private island in Disney World. Richard McGuire, 42, insisted that he hadn’t seen the numerous “no trespassing signs” on the island, or heard the loudspeaker warnings from Disney officials who became aware of his presence. He also claimed to be “unaware” of the police helicopter that hovered overhead because he was asleep in an abandoned building on Discovery Island. When he was arrested, McGuire told police it felt as if he’d discovered a “tropical paradise” (The Week, May 22, 2020, 12).
If we have to be socially isolated right now, it would at least be nice if it could be in paradise! Maybe that’s the tropics, but for many Minnesotans it may be the lake or the cabin. If you’re lucky, maybe that’s even your own backyard.
Yet “alone in paradise” is not what God designed for his human creatures. In the beginning, God created a literal tropical Garden paradise. There was plenty of space, but it was not meant to be a place for isolation. In fact, God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone.” Human beings were created for community with other human beings, and even with God himself who was present in that Garden with the first man and woman. Their job was to multiply and fill the earth, spreading paradise as they go. God’s vision was for a worldwide paradise filled—not empty—with people living in joyful community with one another and with him.
Sadly, that is not our current experience. Many people in this world do not have access to a joyful community nor to any kind of paradise during this epidemic. Millions of people—even here in the U.S.—live in dangerous or cramped places without the ability or choice to go somewhere else.
Their hope and yours is not escape to a life of isolation on a Disney World island. Biblical hope is for God to act to restore the joy of community in his presence and to renew his earthly creation. He has already accomplished the former when his own Son left paradise to live with us. Through his cross and Spirit, Jesus has re-created us already into a community of his followers and has promised to be with us himself, to the very end of the age. And we are waiting for Jesus to return and accomplish the latter—the renewal of an earthly paradise where we can live body and soul with him and his people for eternity.
In the meanwhile, it is our privilege to participate in the spreading of paradise right here on earth, today. Maybe you know someone who is isolated without choice and you can share the joy of community with that person. Or maybe you can think of someone living in a distressing environment and you can help them access a little foretaste of God’s paradise on earth.
Above all, you can share your hope for the end of the story yet to come. In the end, God’s plan is to restore his creation as it was in the beginning—people living in a paradise with Jesus, together.