Walking in the Garden

Every year, I stare in awe at the world’s largest land mammal migration … the world renowned wildebeest migration as it passes through my little corner of the garden. Every year, they take the same path, go along the same way, trudging along the path almost hoof for hoof, one generation after the next.

Sometimes the weather changes, and they are forced to take a different way, but as soon as the right time comes for them to be at a certain place, they hurry along to that place … to rest, to breed, to eat, to play. Sometimes the path they take puts them in danger as they face crocodiles, and possible drowning in a river that they choose to cross. Yet, more often the danger lies within the plains, as the camouflaged king of beasts crawls… and then pounces on unsuspecting babes, mothers, fathers, children in the still of the night.

And yet, as the days and nights wear on, they continue on their way, one big herd, or several smaller herds, moving in one great big circle, always returning to their calving place to start again, from one generation to the next.

Whether we like to admit it or not, we humans do the exact same thing… repeating a cycle, generation after generation. Yet, many times we find that we are walking along a path we did not choose to take… somewhere along the line it seems we took a wrong turn… that we are taking a road that seems forsaken… somehow we got left behind. Sometimes the path is so tough, that we think we have made a mistake … even though it is not. And sometimes in actual fact, we do make a mistake… and then there is that price to pay … as we fall into the lion’s mouth … the crocodile’s jaw … or simply drown.

Yet it is true that whatever path we take, someone has already taken it. No matter how advanced we may get socially or technologically, we still make the same mistakes and achieve the same successes, generation after generation… because we tread the same path generation after generation … the good and the bad ways alike.. always seeking the same things.. survival, comfort, health…. We change, but don’t really change… all we do us use new tools to repeat the same thing … over and over again.

Are we learning anything? Do our lives really serve any purpose other than to go round and round in one great big circle hoping to find our way back to the same place and start again? Do we find a new path when we see that our neighbors have perished in the mouth of the lion … or in the river … drowning or in the jaws of a crocodile? Do we seek to find a better way?

Only you know the answers for your own life. What I do know is that God put us here to serve Him and fulfill His will. Should we not have this purpose, we just might in fact be truly lost. Because, with His purpose, at least life counts for something … for in doing His will, we are empowered to put back more than we found in this Garden, leaving behind a mark of our being here more positively … for the Glory of God and the good of our souls. Are you willing to walk in God’s light in the Garden?

Come … walk with me in the Garden.

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