Sunday, October 22, 2006

Walking in the garden

They heard the sound of the Lord G'd walking in the garden at the time of the evening breeze, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord G'd among the trees of the garden.
--Genesis 3:8


In today's adult class we had Dr. Kathleen H. Staudt, and because she is a new (to me) lecturer in the series I'm holding off any general impressions I have of her. I will say that she has the same bad habit I do of going off on a tangent, breaking up the rhythm and thought of something. I guess it will be after several lectures when I can start to trust this new lecturer. Anyway, her topic (I guess as I don't have the schedule in front of me) was the Laity or Verna Dozier Explains All.
Near the end she read one of her poems, and it had a lot of visual language in it so it was best appreciated with one staring off in the distance. It takes place the moment before Genesis 3:9 ("But the Lord G'd called to the man, and said to him, "Where are you?") when G'd is walking in the garden about to meet up with Adam & Eve. Dr. Staudt imagines in the poem G'd looking forward to seeing them and wondering when they will come to notice all the joys of creation like the sea crashing on the shore. It reminded me so much of the way parents talk about their really young children who see the world with the new eyes of discovery, making things pleasing to the Lord. As a parent maddeningly happy with some craft their 5 year old made. This image held until there was a part of creating more humans, the discovery of flesh on flesh, creating flesh. I guess this was the go forth and multiply part (Genesis 1:28). This was the human family part where there was mankind united by flesh making new and different humans that are united to their parents. There was the joy of G'd reflecting on knowing (like being really good friends with) all these new humans, and being in their hearts? Then the poem ends with "Oh my beloved ones, what is this that you have done."

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