What Is God’s Purpose for the Earth?

WHY do you enjoy walking in a park or strolling through a field of sweet-smelling flowers? Why is it that your spirits soar when you see a beautiful lake or towering mountains with their peaks in the clouds? Why do you stop to listen as birds sing their cheery songs in the treetops? And why is it so pleasant to watch a graceful deer bounding along or a flock of sheep grazing in a meadow?

There is one answer to all these questions. We were made to live in Paradise! That is where our first parents, Adam and Eve, began their life. We got our desire to live in Paradise from them, and they got it from their Creator, Jehovah God. He knew that we humans would be happy in Paradise because he created us with the qualities needed to enjoy such a wonderful earthly home.

Why did Jehovah create the earth? He “formed it even to be inhabited” by humankind. (Isaiah 45:18) “The Maker of the earth” gave Adam and Eve a beautiful paradise home, the garden of Eden. (Jeremiah 10:12; Genesis 2:7-9, 15, 21, 22) How they must have enjoyed its streams, its flowers, its trees! Graceful birds could be seen in the sky, and animals of various kinds roamed the land​—none of them a threat to humans. Fish and other creatures moved about in earth’s clear, clean waters. Best of all, Adam and Eve were together. They could bring forth their kind and expand their Paradise home in joyful association with their growing family.

Although the earth is not a paradise today, it can be compared to the fine home of a happy family. Our God-given global home has what we need​—light, heat, water, and food. How we appreciate the sun’s light and heat and the moon’s soft glow at night! (Genesis 1:14-18) In earth’s cellar there are fuels, such as coal and oil, that we can use for heating. Because of the water cycle  and earth’s system of rivers, lakes, and seas, we have water. And as a carpet, the earth has green grass.

Just as food may be stored in a home, there is plenty in earth’s pantry. By means of crops in the fields and fruit in the orchards, Jehovah ‘gives us fruitful seasons and fills our hearts with good cheer.’ (Acts 14:16, 17) Since the earth is already such a fine home, imagine what it will be like when “the happy God,” Jehovah, makes it a paradise!​—1 Timothy 1:11.

 [Picture Credit Lines on page 2]

COVER: Earth: NASA photo; Stars: NASA, ESA and AURA/​Caltech