The headmaster of a school I once attended wrote these words: ‘Materialism is of the town. One cannot be agnostic in surroundings like these…,’ that is, surrounded by beautiful countryside. This is a common idea: ‘You are nearer God’s heart in a garden, Than anywhere else on earth.’ And, after all, weren’t Adam and Eve placed first of all in the beautiful garden of Eden?

The first town (or city) occurs early in the Bible. It was built by Cain, and he called it Enoch. We might imagine it wasn’t much of a place, but the point is it was a settlement where people lived together. A city is both a conurbation and a community. Reading on in the Bible the idea of a city seems to develop in two quite different directions. On the one hand a city can be an evil and dangerous place in which to live: I see violence and strife in the city… iniquity and trouble are within it… oppression and fraud do not depart from its marketplace (Psalm 55:9-11). There are plenty of cities that bear out that picture only too clearly.

On the other hand wanderers found no city to dwell in, but God led them by a straight way till they reached a city to dwell in (Psalm 107:7); from no fixed abode to a place where they belonged, where they could settle down and be at home. Abel and Enoch, Noah, Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Jacob were strangers and exiles, looking for a homeland so God has prepared for them a city (Hebrews 11:16). The city of our God is the joy of all the earth (Psalm 48:2), glorious things are spoken of it (Psalm 87:3). A city is a place of safety and security; number her towers, consider well her ramparts, go through her citadels (Psalm 48:12,13). God’s promise for the future is of a faithful city on a holy mountain: Old men and old women shall again sit in the streets of Jerusalem, each with staff in hand because of great age. And the streets of the city shall be full of boys and girls playing in its streets… I will save my people… and bring them to dwell in the midst of Jerusalem. And they shall be my people, and I will be their God, in faithfulness and righteousness (Zechariah 8:3-8).

There is no doubt that a garden can be a lovely place, and the natural world is full of scenes of awe-inspiring beauty. But it isn’t all like that. The creation has been subjected to futility; it is in bondage to decay (Romans 8:20,21). Gerard Manley Hopkins might have written, ‘Long live the weeds and the wilderness yet’, but it was no pleasant experience for Israel when they went through all that great and terrifying wilderness (Deuteronomy 1:19). Job 39:6 speaks of the arid plain and the salt land, while Jeremiah 2:6 describes the wilderness as a land of deserts and pits… a land of drought and deep darkness… a land that none passes through, where no man dwells. Much of the earth is very far from being a ‘green and pleasant land’, and the fairest rose can draw blood from your thumb.

In contrast to all this the Bible presents us with unparalleled scenes of future joy: The wilderness and the dry land shall be glad; the desert shall rejoice and blossom like the crocus; it shall blossom abundantly and rejoice with joy and singing (Isaiah 35:1-2). For the Lord comforts Zion; he comforts all her waste places and makes her wilderness like Eden, her desert like the garden of the Lord; joy and gladness will be found in her, thanksgiving and the voice of song. And the ransomed of the Lord shall return and come to Zion with singing; everlasting joy shall be upon their heads; they shall obtain gladness and joy, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away (Isaiah 51:3,11).

In these passages things begin to come together. The earth is renewed and the city is transformed. And the climax is reached in Revelation 22:1-5: Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb through the middle of the street of the city; also, on either side of the river, the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit each month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. No longer will there be anything accursed, but the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and his servants will worship him. They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. And night will be no more. They will need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light, and they will reign forever and ever.

This is a scene of wonder: there is enough for us to understand and long for – there is much that is mysterious and beyond us now. But sin is past and gone, the Fall has been reversed, there is a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more (Revelation 21:1). No longer are town and country set against each other, no longer does the habitation of humans deface the creation of God. The tree of life blossoms in the holy city and the river flows down the middle of its street. Eden and Jerusalem are united; the garden and the city are one. Redeemed people live together in perfect harmony in a renewed earth in joyful fellowship with the triune God whom they worship. When Bunyan describes a glimpse into the Celestial City in Pilgrim’s Progress he adds: ‘And after that they shut the gates: which when I had seen, I wished myself among them.’ And so we shall be if all our hope and trust is in Christ Jesus.