"The Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden" (Genesis 2:8).

The whole created world was "good" in every way, but a particular region was prepared as a special garden in which the first man was to make his home. This place was called "Eden," from a word meaning "delight." The geographical features mentioned prove Eden was an actual, physical location on earth, and not merely some mystical, spiritual place.

God planted in this beautiful garden vegetation and plants of all kinds, including fruit trees, each already bearing delicious fruits. Adam's first knowledge of his Creator was of One who loved him and carefully and abundantly provided for him and his every need.

The luscious garden in Eden would require an abundance of water, which was supplied by a very large river flowing through it before dividing into four branches outside its boundaries (2:10).

Eden was a beautiful place, the trees were pleasing to the eye (2:9). In all of God's creation there was abundant beauty, yet here in the first man's home, God had poured out beauty in special measure. Eden was also a useful place, for it was "good for food" (2:9), sweet and juicy and satisfying. There was plenty to eat in the garden; its trees were abundantly fruitful.

Besides containing lush trees and flowing waters, the garden was also evidently an area rich in minerals (2:11,12). The garden of Eden was certainly an area of unimaginable beauty and mineral wealth.

Thus, the human race began its history in the most perfect environment the earth has ever known. Adam lived in paradise. Wherever he looked, his eyes would behold the pleasant green fields, his nose would delight in the varied fragrances of flowers, and his ears would ring with the joyous songs of the birds in the trees. Yet this best of all possible environments did not stop Adam from disobeying the very One who in great love had given him such a perfect home.

Adam was created a free moral agent with a will to choose to love and obey God, or to reject and disobey Him. God gave but one small restriction in Eden, which Adam should have realized was given from the same love as everything else he had received. But Adam doubted God's goodness, resented His control, and disobeyed His word because of one forbidden fruit in a whole paradise of abundant provision. Such is the heart of man, and sin has thus been passed to all of Adam's heirs with its consequences of death, both physical and spiritual.