Returning to God

Returning to God

Ecclesiastes 12 (RSV)   Remember also your Creator in the days of your youth, before …  the dust returns to the earth as it was, and the spirit returns to God who gave it.

A phrase that haunts me goes something like this – “… homesick for a place I’ve never been before …”  Some speak of a “soul pool” from which we are drawn to come into this reality.  I can imagine a bag of seeds awaiting the hand that slings them into the soil of the field.  Can you remember forgotten memories, of a better place, lurking the shadows of your mind?  My spirit is returning to God, one step at a time.

It is said that scents have powerful memory stimulation ability?!  Just what is the aroma of Paradise lost?  Like bees searching for the nectar of eternity, what bloom draws us there?  It seems that the birds have eaten the crumb trail leading us back home.  The scent of the trail grows colder.  The light of the wisps so easily draws us to the glare of the Fire.

We are struggling along the path home.  But there are many detours and dead-ends, so many distractions and even derailments.  We so easily lose our way.

Father, restore the ancient landmarks.  Prepare the way of the Lord; make his paths straight, in the desert a highway to our God!  Show us the Way!  Help us, to focus on Jesus, the trailblazer, the very Way!  Make his footprints glow, marking the path.  Burn into our very hearts His answer to Thomas’ question, “… how can we know the way?” – “I am the Way, the Truth, the Life!”  May we fear no evil as we walk through the valley, because you are with us.  

EDEN

(dedicated to my new granddaughter, Eden Catherine)

Eden

   The "mother of all living", and her man, "from the earth", walked with the Creator in Eden, the place He made for them.  The very meaning of the name of the Garden, “Eden,” has become hidden in the shadows of history and culture.  We hear “paradise” or “primeval” or, maybe “sanctuary” or “retreat”.  Man has echoed the Garden in Shangri-La and Xanadu.  We long for that lost place of youth, vigor, innocence, purity.  That quiet, green, peaceful world has been corrupted into a brown, noisy, dirty turmoil.  Eden, “the fruitful plain”, has become a dying desert.  Gone are faith, hope, love, peace, beauty, grace …

   Oh, how we long to get back to that place of our childhood!  “Eden…” we longingly whisper in our moments of silent reflection and connection.  He asked, “Where are you…;” but, truthfully, although we have run and hidden from Him, the problem is not His lack of knowledge, but rather ours!  We have eaten from that Tree and lost the very thing it promised.  Down a serpentine path of death we have since stumbled, forgetting the way back to Eden!

   Somewhere east of Eden we have wandered.  “Go west…” has a far deeper meaning than our frontier urge.  Deeper than our longing for new lands, is our hunger for home, Eden.  The very name, “Eden,” conjures images of peace and plenty.   In the nether and nowhere of “Nod” we feel regret and remorse!  At best, the Bellingraths here only stir our souls for the real Garden.

   Paradise will be restored, and all renewed.  Sin and death will be no more.  We will delightfully relish the fruit of the second Tree, hidden away and guarded by angelic swords until just the right time.  Eden awaits the return of the sons and daughters of the first couple, long ago sent away.  “Eden…” is in our hearts!  Perhaps “Eden” will lead us all home?!

THE WAY BACK

THE WAY BACK

                This place feels safe.  But, it is dark.  And, I am feeling the heat being sucked out of my body.  And, sometimes, it feels as if the walls are closing in on me, trying to suffocate me.  I am not sure how long I can stay here.  But, everything out there bites and stings.  In here, it’s cool, even if a little damp.

                I remember them talking about “the garden” and how peaceful it was.  But, all I ever knew was the squalor in which my folks raised me.  Thorns. Thistles.  And the snakes! agh!  And, we had to work constantly, just to survive.  When we’d get a little stored up, then came the rats and worms.  It was a losing battle.

                We brought Him an offering to “thank” Him for the “bounty” that He “gave” us; and, then He turned up His nose at mine.  That damned brother.  I showed them?!  Who’s the favorite now?  But, here I am now.  Alone.

                There are some camp fires I have seen down in the next valley.  I don’t know who they could be in the god-forsaken wilderness.  How could anybody make it out there?!  But, I am going to die if I stay here.  Maybe they won’t kill me.

                I am going to begin walking down there, tomorrow.  I sure cannot go back where I was.  There is no way they would take me back.  I am too far gone, anyways.  I am not even sure how to get back.  Odd!  The old man used to mutter that same thing?!  “…not sure how to get back…”