Echoes of Eden

A bird does not sing because it has an answer. It sings because it has a song. – Chinese Proverb

Eden, what do you think of when you hear that word? It’s a perfect place, a paradise; all those happy words are what come to mind right? That’s the same thing I would have told you if you had asked me…until last week. Now my answer has changed; now I think of the word raw.

The utopian place we think about the Garden of Eden being was the most real, unadulterated, natural place. That is what I experienced as I spent the week with on average 10 handicapped children. Each had their unique hindrance, either physical or mental, but those children understand things I only dream of. They get what it means to live life. Don’t get me wrong now; the Garden was also the place of the first sin. Raw doesn’t mean perfect, because we aren’t, but it was the only place that contained both aspects of humans; the sinless and the sinful.

As I sit on the tile floor and toss a soda can, turned rattle, back and forth with a boy with no fingers or toes life was just about enjoying that moment. The smile on his face when he would catch the can was priceless; an expression I may never forget. What about the young girl who barely had the muscle to hold herself up straight or to use her hands, yet had the determination to link the plastic squares together one by one until the box was completed…that was all that mattered at that moment.

It’s so easy to look at these kids and feel sorry for them because they can’t do things that we can do. I wonder sometimes what they would say to us if they had a chance to be like us for a day. Suddenly they wouldn’t have the liberty of doing things without embarrassment, and would now be stressing about what tomorrow may bring and so many of the other things with which we “normal” people seem to be so concerned. We just don’t get it sometimes, and it’s sad what we find so important in life.

When two of the kids were fighting each other over my attention, each trying to claim me for themselves, or when one boy laughed at another getting hurt, while a different child came to see if he was ok, that’s raw human emotion. When they are happy they laugh, when they are sad they cry, and anger is also shown in its natural state. These children don’t try to impress anyone, they aren’t holding back because they are scared or embarrassed…they dance until they hit the floor, and then get right back up and do it again because dancing makes them happy.

Why do we hold ourselves back so much? Who cares what other people think? Why should you be ashamed of who you are or care what people may say of you if you mess up? I sometimes think that these kids are the ones who really get what it is to be human; what it is to be in that Garden, raw and just living. It makes me sad to think about what I have missed out on while I am so concerned with the things that are meaningless.

I don’t want to care what people think of me if I SING AT THE TOP OF MY LUNGS TO MY JESUS. I want to DANCE LIKE NO ONE IS WATCHING in a crowded place. How more raw can I get then SHARING MY FAITH WITH EVERYONE? What are the things you have missed out on in life while not being yourself?

I have spent a week in Eden, and now…