Return to the Garden
© September 27, 2007, Roy Stucky

There is no more need to talk.
My pace descends to a walk
Beneath the ancient light of stars
Who laugh when I say I have far
To go before I sleep.

A counted sheep.

I return to the Garden,
The primordial measure.
I remember the center
Where the treasure is found.
All my life's been a journey
To the deeper connections.
Through the sequence selections,
Intersections abound.

I feel a part of everything around me.
I share the breath creation holds on trust.
The trees and hawks and crappie schools
Are glad to try and teach me
Deeper flames lie just beneath the crust.

My dazzled dust.

I am not the measure of things.

"Talk" is that I finally shut up.

"Walk" is that I finally stop chasing the phantoms of human ambitiion.

"Sleep" is that I am yet another sheep the restless starlight has counted while eons pass on its quest for sleep. Of course such light mocks when a mortal man uses the word "far". What an embarrassing lack of perspective!

"Garden" is Eden, the environment for which I am designed.

God is the "measure" of all things, not some narcissistic man.

God is the "center" of all things, not some rootbound marble.

God is the "treasure" this fallen fool must seek.

"Connections" is that in God we live and move and have our being. I make a sequence of selections as I live but God creates the pattern.

Colossians 1:15-20 (ESV)
He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by Him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities - all things were created through Him and for Him. He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together. He is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything He might be preeminent. For in Him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through Him to reconcile to Himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of His cross.

Revelation 4:11
You are worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for You have created all things, and for Your pleasure they are and were created.

"Breath" is that I have but borrowed God's breath in order to live.

Genesis 2:7
The LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.

"Dust" is that magma lies below the dirt crust from which I formed. Life appears to revolve around us only if we do not look too far above our heads or too far below our feet.

No one actually knows why we sleep. I find this fact fascinating in itself.

There are at present four basic theories of why we sleep:

1. Lower metabolism to reduce free radical biproducts to allow body to repair cells.

2. Lower metabolism to aid body's efforts to purge fuel-burning biproducts like adenosine.

3. Lower metabolism to aid body's efforts to purge the unnecessary from among the day's new synapses.

4. Relive experiences to reinforce memory.

I see no reason why Adam and Eve would need to sleep before the Fall.

Isaiah 40:28-31 Do you not know? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary, and his understanding no one can fathom. He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak. Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall; but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.

Why would God give Adam and Eve less than He promises you and me?

Without the build-up of toxins like lactic acid and adenosine, why sleep? Adam's mind that could name all the creatures would surely need no synopsis purge or memory reinforcement.

So without sleep, what is night for?

Contemplation of infinity.

This idea is bolstered by God resting. God does not sleep, so 'rest' must mean something different. God considered His creations, that they were good. The only time pre-Fall Adam is said to be unlike God and sleep is during the advent of Eve.