Getting Back to the Garden

I was thinking last night about Church teaching and how we tend to skip right over the "Garden of Eden" and move so quickly into the disobedience of humanity and the alienation of humanity from God.

And, it seemed to me that Church teaching needs to go back to the Garden of Eden, to a longing in the heart of every person, to recall and remember a time of goodness and unity with God, others and the created order. And, when we get back there, we need to linger.

I think the real secret of Quaker teaching is that they start in the harmony and beauty and communion of the Garden of Eden, whereas other wings of the Church begin their teaching with the "fall into sin" by the first humans. Quakers are filled first of all with a deep conviction of the primal unity of God and humanity and they experience this in their souls. Sin, for them, is an alien force, and not natural for human beings. Alienation from God is an unnatural condition against which the soul rebels. This type of Christianity is in contrast with our Protestant Christianity which teaches first about the natural state of humanity being sinful. Catholicism is a little in between on this emphasis, being closer I think to Protestants than Quakers in practice.

So, what about starting out with this image of Paradise, not with the image of Paradise Lost? Maybe CSN&Y were on to something when they sang:"We've got to get ourselves back to the Garden"?

And, what about applying this type of emphasis when we think of our own individual lives? As we seek to understand our lives, maybe we ought to begin with those memories of a time when we experienced the sheer goodness and unity and joy and peace of life in this world? And, linger there a good long while before we start reflecting on the evil and disruption and sorrow and conflict.

The Quakers found the experience of the Garden of Eden in the depths of their souls. Maybe the way back to the Garden is to find the experience of true joy and peace in our memory as we have the courage and strength to remember simpler times, times for many of us from our younger days and childhoods. Times when things just made sense because we hadn't yet discovered how many things don't make sense. Times when we just felt the joy of new discoveries, of playing without worry, of experiencing being a part of life and not feeling the burdens of life.

I started thinking of these things after looking at some old pictures. It made me feel more alive inside to look at those pictures and remember. And, the remembering seemed to start something healthy in my heart and soul. Maybe I am on my way back to the Garden. It is good to remember that I once was a boy, a little boy in a house with a mom and a dad and a sister, and a dog. Because the way I experienced life at that time is deep within me. Somehow in remembering, that experience comes to me now and makes me more who I really am.