Eden and I went on a walk in the woods recently. She loves to go “fairy hunting.” We look into flowers, behind bushes and trees. I don’t think either of us know what we would do if we ever found a fairy - but that’s besides the point. As we tried to locate Tinkerbelle’s home, we stopped and we looked. We listened and we touched. We picked seeds from dried pods, and watched a bird. We had no agenda or place to reach. It was a few moments of pure exploration for it’s own sake.
In that little letting go, I realized how quickly I can forget what quiet abiding is all about. Everything in adult life tends to yell: “hurry up!” Maybe it’s the literal driver behind you, or the silent accusation of a neglected pile of laundry. Todo lists never get shorter on their own you know. Regardless of where the voice may be coming from, we all feel that pressure to keep moving forward.
But where exactly is “forward” or the place we all want to reach? All of us can vaguely locate that place. We all know it has to be out there somewhere. Maybe it’s in the future after an achievement, or goal. Or maybe it is in the past when things were simpler. But as life keeps its steady pace, the pull to that place is always just out of reach. As if we just missed it, or maybe we will get there tomorrow.
That place has had many names: utopia, nostalgia, High School, the Fountain of Youth, Atlantis, El Dorado… What is your name for it?
All of us have an urge within us to find, or get back to, that place of paradise. Many human lives, and even whole civilizations, have risen and fallen chasing after that mystical place. When taken by themselves, this desire can seem very different from person to person. But if we frame it in the places of Scripture, we can realize that we are all just the same.
The Call back to the Garden
desire to be in the garden that is very good
but the way back is barred
the way back in our lives is barred as well
The Call forward to New Jerusalem
desire to create or build the very good place by whatever means we think that might happen technology, philosophy, government, a particular way of life,
but the way forward will always end like the tower of bable if we build it ourselves
story of counting the cost of the tower. We can’t pay it
Your Kingdom Come
Abiding in the kingdom Jesus
Find a parable to end it with
finding the kingdom in the word and sacrament