My Garden of Eden

I love to ponder the story of the Garden of Eden as it is written in Genesis. Recently I had some new thoughts. As I was pondering the story of Adam and Eve, it occurred to me that their problem was not so much eating the forbidden fruit, but in thinking that that fruit would make them like God. If you read Chapter two carefully, you see that the tree is called "the tree of the knowledge of good and evil" (2:17). It is as if the author is trying to tell us that knowing good and evil does not equate becoming godly or God-like.

That sentence makes me ponder. Scripture says, God walked with them in the cool of the evening. They saw God, they talked to God, they got to know God. Then how could they possible think that by eating a piece of fruit they would suddenly be like God? With all of their gifts, they still could not see. It seems that with all their blessings, Adam and Eve did not know where to look for growth. They thought it would come from something transitory, something temporary, something outside of themselves.

Perhaps that is why God removed them from the garden. Not having the beauty or comforts of Eden, their search had to turn inward. They had to realize that growth starts, not in something outside of themselves, but within their own hearts, with pondering and reflection.

It is a lesson for you and me. Perhaps we too seek our spirituality or our faith in the things that are external. Perhaps we are deceived into thinking God is in the fruit of success and the taste of accomplishment. And perhaps the difficulties we encounter in life are meant to assist us, so that we  retreat from searching outside of ourselves, and turn our search inward.

That brings me to the real question, what was the Garden of Eden? Was it really some beautiful place of long ago, closed to us forever? Or is it still here, a hidden place we can and must discover for ourselves? I think it is the latter. And I think that we find that Garden when we retreat and reflect. For the secret of the Garden is really that God walks with his creation. God walks with you and with me. I believe that Garden is within. When we become aware of that inner Presence, we realize we have God too. For what is the Garden of Eden but the place where God is close to us, and we no longer need to seek the Divine in externals?