Jesus promised another way, back to lush lands, a place where we be together with the One who never left us alone. This reflection/poem is Inspired by the text from the first week in Lent in the church calendar. Written by Kelly Hall and Phuc Luu, acting by Jeremy Wells, filmed by Josh Spires and music by Aural Method.
In the beginning, our beginning, we were only dust
Knowing nothing of good and evil
Only the pure innocence of God,
In the garden
Alongside Creator
The Birth-giver
Witness to Live begetting life.
We were shameless—
Known in our nakedness
freely creating,
work was being human.
Standing at the edge of Eden,
things were not the same,
Fragile, we needed protection
and so we hid—
behind trees
behind one another
behind our lives,
work was no longer about creating, but surviving.
Individuated from God
We sought shelter from the pain
of the memory of what we lost.
But at the edge we stood, never alone
wrapped in a pale reflection of our former selves
Would we know how to be man and woman again?
Would we remember how to walk together
with clear vision of each other—
as more than self-made image
but souls sheltered in the divine
looking for the one who created and loved?
From the garden I entered the wilderness of my striving
where I encountered demons,
my demons,
in the shifting sands,
dirt between my toes, as a reminder of my mortality
to seek to fill the hunger
to remember who I was,
but really always forgetting
caught up in work
or in another
or in distractions.
There were days when dreams became fantasy,
painting my self into corners
to connect with all those I loved
including a life, that I left behind—
stretching myself across a canvas of memories
the walking across a painted dessert
to look down from the highest cliff
to hold kingdoms in my palm—
temptation before me.
What they were for me they were for the Son of Man,
A deep growl in a hungry soul.
Jesus came to face himself, and his frailty.
He feasted on food made of words
baked in the mouth of God.
Words of life that promised another way
back to lush lands,
a place where we could hold hands
and be together, with the One who never left us alone.
