Return to the Garden

We are body, soul and spirit. Within the body resides the soul; within the soul is the spirit. Through spirit we communicate with that which we cannot see; through that unseen communication our eternal place in the universe is shaped.
 The spirit is the most intimate part of the human. Free will and choice shape the spirit; on one hand, self centeredness, selfishness, greed or conversely time with God’s Word.
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 My father nurtured his spirit by dining on the “bread of angels”-the word of God that nurtured him in the darkest and emptiest moments of life. He always said he was not afraid of passing from this life to the next. (In fact, he was disgusted when he realized he was living so long that he would have to buy another new car.)

Thus he created within himself a “sacred space”—not unlike a spiritual Garden where he met and talked with the Spirit as in a Garden. 
 **************** The Biblical Garden of Eden was believed to exist at the top of a very tall mountain; in fact, many ancient cultures believed that their gods dwelt in mountainous gardens. It is believed that this is why they built ziggurats and perhaps even pyramids.
 In the Garden of Eden, a broken trust with the Father removed its inhabitants from the sacred space; food now required digging, watering and nurturing edible plants. They needed to build a shelter from wild winds and cold.
 Worse, humans had to kill the creatures they had named and with whom they had become friends, then strip their skin to wear as garments and eat them as food. 
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 During his weeks at hospice, my father’s mind did begin to wander; the process of dying took days and days but before he lapsed into unconsciousness he said something clearly, something I have never forgotten
 and has shaped my life. “I got to get to the other side of the mountain,” he said matter of factly. “It’s real pretty over there. ”
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One condition many humans dread is the dawning realization that a loved one—or oneself—is losing memory.


Yet for those who have accepted Christ as Savior and have communed with the Holy Spirit, the truth is that God never leaves, especially in the darkest hours.
 Jesus says he will sustain and reach you (Isaiah 46:4) and not forsake you when your strength is gone (Psalm 71:9) Though the body outwardly wastes (2 Cor 4:16), nothing can separate you from the love of God, even complete loss of memory in this world (Romans 8:38)


In Christ, you have become a new creation (2 Cor 5:17) and the human spirit of that new creation walks even the darkest of hallways with God.
 Though the body wastes away outwardly (2 Cor 4:16), it continually renews every moment of every day.


Jesus says He has engraved his loved ones on the palms of His hands,with scars that speak. (Isaiah 49: 15-16)


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 This my father told me as he was on his way to returning to our Father’s astonishingly beautiful mountain Garden. He is there now, surrounded by vibrance and energy and strength and beauty so intense it cannot be related.
 No, when the spirit that has been nourished by the bread of Heaven, the Heavenly Father never ever leaves, even as illness and pain and age besiege the fragile body.
 Just as with an unborn child, He walks with us as we return to His dwelling where we are surrounded by the most beautiful butterflies (we have never yet seen), by sweetly chirping birds of colors we do not know—of the sound of rushing fragrant waters-of flowers that need no pruning and never die-of winds that both cool and warm-of watching the paths of angels as they move from one corner of the earth to another - of iridescent stars that sparkle as they sing sweetly and quietly.
 Yes, it’s real pretty over there.
 Someone I know told me. 
****************            Prism Resin, gouache, rice paper, holographic pattern