15. Echoes from Eden

After Eve went back to find Adam and tell him about her adventure I stayed at the scene of the luminous resurrection long enough for the ladies to show up so I could see the shocked expressions on their faces. The fear-to-joy transition was never so magnificent and never would be again.  What a grin it glued onto my face.

I promised Eve that I would wait for her return. Meanwhile, I had to figure out how to stay in Eden, but force milennia to pass-by in a flash, so I could return to my sacred technology.   

I  remembered that when we finally found Eden I came to understand that it is the place on this earth where God and His children meet. It is the garden where He always intended us to live in obedience and trust until that awesome day when this earth gives way to the new earth inhabited only by God’s sons and daughters, where Satan’s folly is no more. The whole idea of creating a planet and animating it with chosen people with golden hearts is brilliant but requires so much patience and planning that I am sure that only God could have thought of it and could make it happen. Who else has the time?

Until that glorious day we get Eden: this old earthly place where we who are born by the will of God can hear Him speak. The difference between Eden and Milwaukee is that in Milwaukee people talk to God day and night, talk-talk-talk. They rarely even take a breath to hear Him answer. But in Eden, the obedient ones who manage to fast from eating the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, or when they do, who grab the antidote: the tree of life, made accessible at the crucifixion, can actually hear God speak to us, if we will only listen.

Lilies laugh louder than nasturtiums.

If you knew that then you too might be in Eden.

Happy Mother’s Day Eve wherever you are. Please come home.

16. Hear God Speak

I managed to land back in the 21st century, but then I had to make sure I was in Eden.

As I looked around I saw a young couple walking toward me hand in hand. The closer they got, the surer I was that it was my precious Eve and her husband Adam. Eve had never looked so young and so beautiful; I had never seen Adam.

“I’m back!” she said and dropped Adam’s hand to hug me. “This is Adam!”

Adam reminded me of Michelangelo’s David. It was breathtaking to be in his presence, a perfectly formed man. I wanted to believe that he was as perfect in his heart as he was in form. I never thought too highly of Adam when I read of how he caved to Eve’s request right away and without compunction, and how he blamed her immediately when caught. I wanted to punch him right then and there.

In the midst of these unsettled thoughts I tried to be polite, smiled and shook his hand.

“Look, I’m sorry I blamed Eve.” He said. As Eve could read my mind apparently so could Adam. “Don’t you think I’ve regretted eating that fruit too; will I never live this down?”

I tried to get over my embarrassment as I vaguely heard him go on. “Have you ever wondered what would have happened if she ate it and I didn’t? Have you ever wondered if God expected us to eat the fruit? Why did He plant that tree right smack in the middle of the Garden?”

“I’m sorry too Adam. Please let’s move on. We’ll ask God when the time is right. For now, the past doesn’t matter.” Then I turned to Eve and said, “Eve, I just arrived and I am not sure that I’m still in Eden.”

“Well, has God spoken to you yet?” she replied.

“I think He said that ‘Lilies laugh louder than nasturtiums.’ What a funny thing to say. I can’t help but laugh and wonder if it’s true.”

“Oh, it’s true alright. That lily family! What a cacophony they make, Easter lilies, tiger lilies, lilies of the valley, it’s a chorus of laughter when they come together.” She said all cheery.

Then I brought her right back down by adding, “How do I know when God speaks to me?”

Eve looked as though she felt sorry for me, or as if I was a two year old she had to teach to speak when she replied, “You can just tell, silly! Let me think. You know it is God is speaking when He says something that you just know you wouldn’t say. Sometimes He speaks through your conscience, sometimes through circumstances or through others, or through the Bible. God talks a lot. Here, read this:”

"He who is of God hears God’s words; therefore you do not hear, because you are not of God." John 8:47 NKJV  I cringed and she read on. "But you do not believe, because you are not of My sheep, as I said to you. My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me. And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand. John 10:26-28 NKJV.

“Eve, I think I just heard God say He loves me, could that be Him?”