Read out at the Sunday service in Kilmory and Lamlash, 13 March 2011
The Garden
Behind our memory
is the place we cannot remember
where we took form
and were at one
with that beyond ourselves.
Eden is a barren desert now.
Its sapling apple trees
are planted out into the world
to yield fruit after their kind,
as God intended it.
This Fall, this separation this state we call sin
is not for lamentation and despair
nor for self-accusation.
God has not rejected us.
Does a mother reject the child she bears
when it leaves her body?
This world in which we live enclosed
will presently expel us
into a state that we cannot imagine
from earth’s womb.
Yet do not be afraid
so Easter teaches us
compassionately.
The Garden is for hope and trust
whether it be Eden
or Gethsemane.