When It All Began

Genesis 2:4b-9 (NRSV)

In the day that the LORD God made the earth and the heavens, when no plant of the field was yet in the earth and no herb of the field had yet sprung up--for the LORD God had not caused it to rain upon the earth, and there was no one to till the ground; but a stream would rise from the earth, and water the whole face of the ground-- then the LORD God formed man from the dust of the ground,a and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and the man became a living being. And the LORD God planted a garden in Eden, in the east; and there he put the man whom he had formed. Out of the ground the LORD God made to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food, the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

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In this garden
This lovely garden
I build a temple of love
Walk with the Father
Won’t be a bother
To touch the Earth as it was

I Build This Garden For Us by Lenny Kravitz, from Let Love Rule, 1989, Miss Bessie Music, Virgin Records

If we have learned anything from The Sound of Music it is that we should start at the very beginning. It is after all, a very good place to start. It all began when the Lord created. The Lord didn't have to create, the Lord chose to create, and a glorious creation sprang from the Lord. In it, a garden was built for Adam (the Hebrew word for "a man") to live.

What a wonderful and glorious relationship: creation, created, creator; forever in a dance of love and joy. In this beginning, the Lord builds the garden and the man builds a temple to the love the Lord gives. The ethereal dawn of all creation comes through in glowing and flowing music, a joining of guitar, organ, and dreads.

But beware the foreshadowing, Lenny Kravitz sings about touching the earth as it was. Yes, as it was. Even in this idyllic recreation of the garden, we know that it didn't last. But this knowledge should not stop us from remembering. It must not stop us from remembering.

Yes this is a glory we do not live in today, but this does not stop the glory from breaking into the world. We can never stop the Lord from showing us glory from time to time. God's glory breaks into our lives like lightening flashes across the skies. There is a flash, there is light, and yes, there may even be a sound of fury along with the glory of the light because sometimes that is the way of the light.

The garden has been built. The garden is real. What a wonderful and glorious relationship: creation, created, creator; forever in a dance of love and joy. Oh the thought of touching the earth as it was when it all began.