No Shame in the Garden

“Now the Lord God had planted a garden in the east in Eden; and there he put the man he had formed. . . and they felt no shame.” – from Genesis 2:8+25

. . . but then they disobeyed the voice of the One they knew. There can be no shame in the garden and so they had to leave.

Would you want to live an eternity in shame?  amidst war and poverty, cruelty and injustice?  Would you really want to live this life forever?  on this dying planet with it’s false pleasantries?  in this skin, carrying these sins?

But why call it sin? I have heard this too many times to number and even sometimes I wonder . . . A shepherd, he said – “You know wrong when it’s done to you.” I speak a harsh word and my conscience lets it slide, but you hurt my child and I know the evil quick and without question.

The taint is real, the pollution complete, no scrubbing it out, ignoring or arguing it away.

All the magic, golden light and crashing waves, are but glimpses of glory. They tell of Him, shining through His creation – we are not abandoned.

Jesus – and the story is rewritten.

“We are always Eden”  Alli Rogers sings. We can accept the invitation to return to the garden and one day again set foot in it.

No longer left in our shame – we are offered a new heart, a new spirit, a future, a hope. The slate is wiped clean, the debt forgiven. Still I live hunched over, head hung in shame, still carrying my burden. I cling to the stinking facade and refuse to walk in the amidst the blossoming hope. I fear to raise my hands to him because I still hands still clench tight my guilt. I hide behind a halfway, maybe I’ve really been forgiven sort of walk.

But our lover longs for us, He will not leave us in this wasteland.  FORGIVENESS.  It is finished, it is spoken, it is needed, it is real. It is complete. For all the screw ups we thought could never be undone and all the missteps we never knew we took, it is enough. I know a good portion of mine and they are not small. Not the least of which, my inability just to live in His grace and share it with others – my constant wandering from His side. Life gets too hard, the kids are too crazy, sidestep, give in and I miss the mark.

“Therefore, I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven – for she loved much. But he who has been forgiven little loves little.” – Luke 7:47

Do we know that we need to be forgiven MUCH, every one of us. And when we turn to Him do we know that we now live in the Freedom of forgiveness? Living Always FORGIVEN.

And here in this beauty, this ever blooming garden we can dance and rejoice, we can raise hands in ridiculous hilarity and fall down humbled. Always, always in Forgiveness. This is where He holds us. This is the shower of blessing that brings new life to a parched and weary land where there is no water.

 

On a rain drenched evening I left dinner on the stove and laid down in the mud to take pictures of the flower garden my children planted.

3-17-12 . 85mm . VSCO + LR .