Glimpses of Eden

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Piper, our beagle puppy, peed on the carpet for the second time this morning. As many trials to work things together for our good, it seemed this morning’s puppy accident was perfectly timed. After I scolded her, which is always difficult because of her cute guilty face, and cleaned the mess, I took her outside to show her what she is supposed to do. After she had gone again on the grass (somehow, she had more in her than she unleashed on the carpet), the goodness of the morning gave the impulsive desire to take her on a walk around the circle of our neighborhood.

            Before the incident, I had been having my morning prayer time. It is typically frustrating when that is interrupted by my undisciplined little pet, but this morning, I couldn’t have asked for more. As we rounded the corner of the sidewalk, the sun shone in my direction. It was rising over the trees across the way and shining just over them so that its beams were visible against the mist. There was a very slight coolness that was a perfect companion the warmth of the sun that just hit my face. I took a moment to shield my eyes from it just enough so that I could peer under it and see its illumination of the mist below. Like a moth drawn to a lamp, I found myself lost in the beauty of the moment. Everything that I had previously had on my mind settled for a moment. I walked (more pulled) Piper over as close as we could get to the edge of the steep hill that overlooked the illuminated greenery. It was bliss. I felt, for that moment, that I could have sat there and stared at that scene all day. It wasn’t just the sight of it. The sun was warming my skin. The bugs and birds were playing a pleasant melody. My feet were wet from the dew. Everything around me smelled fresh.

            Piper was pulling in every direction to have her own share of the world around her. Normally that would have annoyed me. Right now, I stood and hardly noticed her pulling. The mist was moving under the beams. I saw a small stream creating a path of mud through the earth. I wanted to splash through it like a child. A spider web was reflecting the light. The leave and grass were speckled with little glowing lights of the reflected sun. It was a glimpse of Eden.

            The world we live in is fallen and tainted, much by our own doing, from God’s original and beautiful intension. Once in a while, though, God blesses us with these glimpses of Eden, these existential moments of contentment remind us that, through the redemption that is found in Christ Jesus, this present state is not all, and that the God who created such a moment, has set aside an eternal bliss much greater than we have encountered before.