The Second Adam's World

No 27: October 9, 2020

Dear Friends,

“Welcome to Adam’s world.”

That’s what my wife said to me a few minutes ago, as I was standing at the kitchen sink trying in vain to wash the black grease off my hands. I was lamenting how everything has to be so difficult. I was talking about my freelance career as a car mechanic—which extends as far as my own aged vehicles. No, I don’t make any money doing this, but I sure do save money—thousands and thousands of dollars, in fact.

This particular job, all to replace a $4 rubber gasket so my oil will stop leaking, has now bled into two days, and it will probably be day three before I get the puzzle put back together. The guys on YouTube make everything look so easy, especially the easy things. In my experience, however, even the “easy” things are not even remotely easy. Thorns and thistles, indeed. In Adam’s world, you only achieve things through the sweat of the brow, cuts and abrasions on your hands, and thick black grease under your fingernails.

But even in the thick of it are blessings. I remind myself of what an actual mechanic’s bill would be for this job. Thank you, God. I get great delight in my new helper, my thirteen-year-old daughter who relishes getting greasy and is eager to learn what the tools and parts all do. She thinks an alternator is amazing—attach it to the engine and the battery, and you have a self-perpetuating electricity machine! Thank you, God.

Then there is the satisfaction when something does go right, as it inevitably does after hours of toiling. Thank you, God.

I’m grateful for YouTube, and the many mechanics who, inexplicably, have used it to share their expertise with soft-handed dummies like me. I’m grateful for globalism and Internet commerce, because I can get replacement parts for pennies on the dollar, even for an old luxury BMW. I’m grateful for the cooler fall weather in which to work. I’m grateful for my quiet residential street. I’m grateful for this big, beautiful guy who is currently living—yes, living—kitty corner to my back yard.

“Welcome to Adam’s world.” It’s a comment meant to invoke the curse, but it is much more than that. Because God still abundantly graces Adam’s world. Even after the fall of man, the earth still yields its harvest and alternators, believe it or not, do slide back in place if you shimmy it around enough. People are sinful and generally selfish, yes, but sometimes experts film their instructions and put them on the Internet free of charge. Wild animals are still scared of would-be human lords, but this guy doesn’t mind if I sit on my deck and watch him eat. Childbirth and child-rearing is painful, but soon enough that little girl will have small enough hands to get to the hard-to-get bolts.

I have a junker vehicle. 2000 Mercury Mountaineer. Someday, maybe soon, that beast will give up the ghost. Why do I insist on tinkering and replacing things in the face of the inevitable? Well, some practical reasons. I can’t really afford a new car. Nothing too serious is wrong with it. Parts are cheap, and the information is available. That engine just runs, even well after 200,000 miles. But the real reason is this: I love it. I love that car. I love the four-wheel drive, I love the tires, I love cruising up to the trout stream, or driving the dirt-road “back way” to my haunts in the Beartooth Mountains. I keep that thing running because of love, even though I know it is destined for the scrap heap.

God has a junker, too. Sin entered and spoiled it. But he keeps it running. He keeps the heavens and the earth holding together, and the summer still slides into autumn with beautiful regularity. And it’s also because he loves it (John 3:16). The world after the fall is not destined for the scrap heap. He has plans for it, plans to restore and renew it. We know that because he’s preserved it for so long. In the fullness of time, he showed us why. On Easter morning the Son of Man walked out of a tomb in a once-for-all declaration that death and decay would never be the last word.

“Welcome to the Second Adam’s world.”

Persevere through the remaining thorns and thistles, the seemingly endless frustrations when the easy things are never easy, and look—really, look!—for the evidences of God’s grace. For me, today, right now, that means YouTube, cheap auto parts, helpful children, cool weather, and one truly spectacular mule deer.

God is gracious to us and blesses us. He makes his face to shine upon us. He turns his face—the face of Jesus!—toward us and grants us peace.

Miscellany

• Edward Van Halen died this week from cancer, age 65. I was never what you would call a huge fan of their music (David Lee Roth was just way too much for me), but in recent years I took a keen interest in him. It isn’t often that a genius truly revolutionizes something, but he certainly belongs to that category. No, not because he “invented” all of his electric guitar techniques. People had done them before. But he didn’t know anybody had done them before. He did invent all that stuff for himself. He tore apart guitars and tinkered until he got the sound he wanted. As a teenager he took a $50 reject guitar and turned it into a “mutt.” It was the guitar that he played in concert for his entire career, even after becoming fabulously wealthy. They had to invent a new way to write guitar music (tablature) because of Eddie Van Halen.

  More than anything, for me he is the end of more than just a musical era. He marks the end of an American era—the last generation of large-scale European immigration. Born in Holland, he and his brother Alex came across the Atlantic with their parents on a ship, and their way was paid because their father played clarinet in the big band on board. They ended up in Pasadena. They didn’t know the language, and just tried to fit in. Then he and Alex discovered rock-and-roll, like every other teenager of their time. Eddie got a paper route and bought a drum kit. Alex bought a flamenco guitar. One day they just switched instruments and that was that. Van Halen, with Alex on drums and Eddie on guitar, went on to sell 56 million albums domestically, and had two albums sell 10 million albums with two different lead singers. He lived the American dream. And God truly gifted him. RIP, Eddie. Here’s a lovely interview from five years ago.

• Last week I wrote about how Amy Coney Barrett was going to come under fire for her connection to the Alliance Defending Freedom. My friend Brian Hagedorn, fellow ADF speaker and now Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice, had something to say about it as well. Only he published his in the Wall Street Journal. It’s a must-read.

• There’s been a rash of evangelicals declaring their intentions to vote for the Biden/Harris ticket. Naturally, they have all kinds of subtle arguments for why pro-life Christians ought to do this, in spite of the fact that those candidates oppose any restrictions on abortion from conception to live birth. Justin Taylor, with a little help from Robbie George and Ramesh Ponnuru, scrutinizes those arguments and finds them wanting.

• It is fitting for Eddie to give us the send off this week. If you ever doubted his skills, doubt no longer. You’ll also quickly discover, sadly, why he died of throat cancer. (Yes, this solo really does go on for 13 minutes, so at least watch until he really starts getting into it!)