My beautiful black lab stood in the snow staring off into the forest. The moon was casting magnificent gray shadows across the reflective white floor. She was trembling. It was not fear. Her hackles were not raised. This was different. The coyotes were calling from the treed mountain. She looked at me and then looking into the night she moved a step forward. Again she looked at me with a longing. She wanted to go to them. There was something primal moving her memory of being free to run and explore with her far removed cousins. Taking yet another step forward she paused and when I said her name she turned back to me. As we reentered the house she looked back to the trees. She wanted to go. It was only her love for me that restrained her.
She is not unlike us, who have primal memories of Eden. We visit beautiful gardens laden with flowers and all manner of flora and there is an inner pull, an unsettled urge to want to live forever in such beauty. Was it really so long ago that Eve and Adam tended God’s artistry? There are many layers of consciousness in our magnificent minds and deep inside there is a draw to go home. How often must Adam have taken Abel, Seth and Cain to the gate of Eden and spoke to them of the beauty inside.
How grand that we have a way to satisfy this longing for eternal life in a paradise of God’s making. Unlike my lab that resisted the call for her love for me we can respond with a yes to our call. Our love for the One who formed us has made our entrance available. All we need is to say yes.
Written by Roger Bothwell on March 20, 2015
Spring of Life, PO Box 124, St. Helena, CA 94574
Rogerbothwell.org