February 9, 2010

The sun has finally burned away the fog cloud blanket. I didn't know if it would do so today. I am loving this El Nino weather pattern. It has allowed me to jump start the commencement of the 2010 garden season by about three weeks.

And the Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there he put the man whom he had formed. And out of the ground made the Lord God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil. (Genesis 2: 8-9; KJV)

The center of the garden is fraught with danger. It is at the center where the 'fateful' encounter between Eve and the Serpent plays out.

And the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush; and he looked, and, behold, the bush burned with fire, and the bush was not consumed. And Moses said, I will now turn aside, and see this great sight, why the bush in not burnt. And when the Lord saw that he turned aside to see, God called unto him out of the midst of the bush, and said, Moses, Moses. And he said, Here am I. (Exodus 3:2-4; KJV)

The flaming center of the bush is the source of God's voice....the center of holy ground. It is a place of consuming white hot heat. Moses dares not get too close to the center.

Having driven a steak in the center of the garden I steward, I now eye that place with greater reverence. I walk by it carefully. While it's true that the center stake is purely artificial, it invites me to reflect on the question: What is at the center? Is it sacred? Dangerous? It helps me understand the minds of the ancients a little better. They wanted to raise a pole at the center and dance around it. They wanted to erect their shrines and temples at the center. They felt the Holy was found at the center and considered it a place of danger...the dwelling place of the god(s).

These musings are helping me formulate and shape the direction of my next public presentation: The fear of the Lord.....