EDEN

So, I’ve started a new thing over the last two to three months.  Actually, it’s not brand new, let’s just say I’ve been encouraged, invigorated.  What is it you say?  Morning prayer walking, I say.  Oh, that’s it, you say?  No, that’s just not it, that’s ALL, I say.

You see, I had been taking prayer walks at lunchtime.  You know, a much needed break from the office, get outside, speak to God.  I’d meander through the streets of Martinsburg thinking and praying, sometimes with great distraction.  But, speaking to God nonetheless.

A few months ago I re-read a book we had in our library.  I’d read it many years ago and had completely forgotten the story line.  Heaven’s Wager, by Ted Dekker.  It’s amazing to me what an impact a work of fiction can have on the truths of our lives, especially a work of redemption and salvation.  This fiction work convicted me, right alongside with the directives of the Word of God to pray.

So, my morning walks, modeled after a devout character in the book, began.  I’ll not spoil the storyline for you, but one of the characters in the book prayer walked.  It started with walking and praying a groove in the carpet in her bedroom to walking eight or more hours a day on painful legs simply to praise God and seeking salvation for another, because He said so.  Praising and listening were the keys to the prayers.  I’ll tell you no more, you will need to read it for yourself, however, I wanted you to know my train of thought and how my journey into Paradise began.

The other morning I was on my prayer walk and I had a thought – this must have been what it was like for Adam and Eve, walking in the garden with God.  As I put one foot in front of the other at dark o’clock, up and down the road, I listened to all the garden sounds – birds, crickets, locusts, and peepers, by the dawn’s early light, I could only wonder if this was how it was for Adam and Eve to be in the Garden. Of course, there are nongarden noises every once in a while, someone heading to work up on Poor House, a plane overhead, deer hooves on asphalt (yes), but when the earth noises fade, the Garden voices start again and once again I think, is this how Adam and Eve lived?  Their communion with nature was important, remember they were given dominion over all, but what is even more important than their communion with nature was their communion with God.  God met them in the garden.  God walked with them and talked with them right there in the garden.  It is amazing to think that each and every step I take on that road, He is too with me in this Garden.

When the cool evening breezes were blowing, the man and his wife heard the LORD God walking about in the garden…Then the LORD God called to the man, “Where are you?” Genesis 3:8-9

Another thought I had was that Adam and Eve could only be praisers.  You know, praising their Creator all the day long…their communion with the Lord was not wrought with whining, complaints, or gimmes or demands.  Their communion with the Lord in the Garden could only be perfect up until the fall.  To that point sin had not entered in.  To that point, the relationship with God and Adam and Eve in the Garden had been a deeply intimate relationship – Creator to created.   What a magnificent example of communion – union – unity with the Creator.  Praising their Creator all the day long…Maybe the very first modeled prayer can be found in Genesis, in the Garden.

Get out in a morning and spend some time in the Garden, in the twilight time, when the stars are still aglow.  Allow yourself to feel Eden.  As all creation bows at His feet, move your feet with thoughts of Praise.  Connect with God in His Holy Place.  Allow yourself to feel the Garden of Eden, the beauty of creation, but mostly the presence of the Creator.