“And We’ve Got to Get Ourselves Back to the Garden”

(lyric from “Woodstock” by Joni Mitchell)

I find it truly amazing how many who are birthed children of the Father and yet who lack revelation of what it means to be His sons, to be more specific: the nostalgic charming of our souls to somehow recapture the supposed idyllic state of innocence and beauty in the Garden.

Somehow this reeks of ignorance, better yet blindness as to Who it is we have been called. Before I go any further, it is expedient that we understand that this unfolding revelation of Whose we are, is limited to a very narrow caste grouping: “whosoever will”! Without knowing the truth that we are called to BE His, is it any wonder that so many are drawn back (to a Garden) rather then forward into so much that Father God has prepared for us, hidden for us, not from us?

The weariness and depletion that so many of us lug around like millstones weighing us down is proof of not knowing Whose we are. Otherwise, why would Jesus have said,
“Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you'll recover your life. I'll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won't lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you'll learn to live freely and lightly."

It is the Father’s great pleasure to make known to us Whose we are, because it is only out of this living, breathing reality that we are freed to live apart from the crippling tentacles of fear’s chokehold. "For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, "Abba! Father!" The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him."

How many of us, like the early followers of Christ, would agree with Jesus that it was extremely critical that He go to be with the Father so that the promise of the Father could be fully realized in a myriad more “sons?”

What most of us do not understand is that the original couple, Adam and Eve, were ‘created’ beings, and that the supposed idyllic relationship lived out of innocence was purely an external connection they had with the Father. They were at that place, perfect for where they were, yet not completed. That completion was available to them as represented in the Tree of Life, had they partaken of it versus the other tree, because, according to Scripture, “He who is joined to the Lord is one spirit”; that consummation would have completed it all.

Father invites us to live in the reality of Who’s we are verses looking for the proverbial breadcrumb trail leading to some garden.

Rich