We are creatures of longing. But where do these longings come from? Their roots lie in our creation: we were made to dwell with God as He dwells with us. This takes us back to Eden. Eden was a garden‑temple—God’s dwelling place with humanity. Scripture shows God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, seeking fellowship with the first humans so that they might enjoy His presence. The God who formed us is relational, delighting in communion within His own Triune life and extending that communion to His creatures. Within this fellowship, the deepest longings of the human heart find their true satisfaction.

Genesis presents Eden as the original sanctuary, and Ezekiel confirms this by calling it a temple, referring to it as “the garden of God… the holy mount of God” (Ezek 28:13-14, 16, 18).  Humanity was created for life in this Garden‑temple, where God’s presence gave identity, purpose, and joy. But when God was rejected, humanity was exiled from the garden. We now inhabit a world marked by the death that comes from no longer being with God as He is with us. It is no surprise, then, that our hearts remain restless until they find their rest in Him.

The sanctuaries that followed—the Tabernacle and Solomon’s Temple—were miniature Edens, localised and temporary focal points of divine presence. Each was only a shadow pointing beyond itself to a greater reality still to come.

That reality is Jesus. In John 2, He declares that His body is the true temple, the dwelling place that supersedes the stone temple before Him. In Him, the long‑promised communion of Eden is restored. Only in Jesus do we find the soul’s true rest in the presence of God—the rest for which we were created from the beginning