Shadows of the Garden

Most of us know some form of the "In the beginning..." story.  To recap, Adam and Eve were created by God and placed in a perfect garden that was free of strife.  They had one instruction, don't eat the fruit of a particular tree.  They disobeyed and consequence ensued.  What follows is an allegory of that story.

The tree in the middle of the garden was impossible to miss because of one singular feature.  On the side away from the light, it cast a deep, black shadow, completely unlike the ever so slight shadow of contrast cast by everything else in the garden.  All the other shadows were really only little more than outlines. The shadow of this one tree was ominous, every bit as ominous as God's instruction to not eat it's fruit.  And as we know, the mystery of this tree proved to be more than Adam and Eve chose...or possibly even, could resist.  (In the end, the difference between those words matters not at all.)

In the moment Adam and Eve ate the fruit, dark shadows attached to everything, even Adam and Eve.  Adam and Eve saw the shadows but more importantly saw many many things in the shadows they'd never seen before.  None of these were good.  Also, for the first time, they saw themselves and became self-conscious and  ashamed.

When God found his children, he was not surprised at what they'd done, but he was still broken hearted.  He knew how much things had changed and what the shadows meant for him and for them.  The garden could not help them anymore so he made them clothes and sent them on their way.  Because there was too much for them to learn about the shadows all at once, he continued to show up from time to time and help them and even their kids with things that weren't always clear.

Over time, more and more about the nature of shadows and how to live with them was revealed.  There were a couple of interesting parts.  One was that anything that was in a shadow died.  The sad thing about this was that men and women soon got even better at seeing shadows and eventually realized that there was a kind of dim shadow over everything.  The other thing was that there were small nasty beings that lived only in shadows.  These were called demons. 

God helped with this too by teaching man about avoiding shadows and their consequences.  These teachings were called laws.  Laws were created for our good.  The laws failed though because man couldn't keep the laws any more than Adam and Eve could resist the fruit in the garden.  In the end, man worshiped the laws themselves and forgot why God created them in the first place.

From the beginning of this story, God had a plan that went beyond just living with the shadows.  He wanted to get rid of all shadows both great and small and replace them with nothing but light.

The key to this plan was his son.  His son was complete light from the beginning.  At one point, the son took on shadow, even to the point of complete blackness and death.  This also broke God's heart.  Even so, the shadow of death couldn't stop the light.  In 3 days, the son again appeared to man, revealing himself as the source of light that he is to this day and forevermore. Shadows in the world of men still remain but they no longer have any power.  And all man has to do is ask the son to help him out of the shadows.  The son can do that because of who he is and because he knows better than anyone that shadows can't hold us.

Men still stumble into shadows when they're not watching where they're going or what they're doing.  This is true even for men that have been helped by the son before.  The son knew this would happen and that if something wasn't done, pretty soon the shadows would trick man into thinking they still had power over him.  So, the son left us so that we wouldn't just look at him all the time.  But that's not all he did.  He also sent a spirit of light to live in everyone who'd ask.  It's that spirit that makes all of us beautiful facets of the one great light, and eventually eliminates the shadows in us.

Soon, both the son and the spirit will be here on earth, together.  Even so, the echoes of the shadows will still remain for yet awhile.  Because of this, we must always remember that the light in us is both for us and for others.  We must always share what we've been given so that everyone can see the light.