I think I get it now

For years I've looked at the stars.

I've looked, searching for something

anything

I did not know what

I picked up the Bible

I read it and became convinced

We are not alone

But something felt missing

The narrative felt incomplete

Not because it was not enough

But because I felt not enough

My universe was me

I searched the stars, praying, hoping, thinking

for an answer that was not mine

I searched under the bones of learned men

I heard talks from smart women

But none of it fit

Eden came to mind over and over and over again

Why Eden? Why Now?

I hear the rain, smell petrichor

My heart aches for something

I am completed by my God, but something feels missing

So I look to the stars

I pray, and prayed

Then Eden came again, this time with a withered tree

Its branches were black

Its trunk was charred grey and smoking

I heard three claps of thunder, and a bolt of lightning through me

It was I who ate of the tree

Creation groans because of me, my mother, father, brothers, sisters

We consumed its heart, tore at its body

I wept, as I now weep; bitterly

We destroyed Eden, pillaged it.

Then after the scraps did we turn on one another

What is so different now than what was back then?

Why now do I think it has come to finality?

Because Eden is waiting to be born again.

Brothers, sisters, fathers, mothers.

Eden is lost.

But the stars wait for our return

As does the sea

As does the wind

As does the ash

As does this body made from dust

Our souls have lost Eden, but the Garden still waits

God has prepared a homecoming

And all creation yearns for us to attend

Tend your hearts brothers and sisters

Prepare the plot before the storm

The Garden must be watered soon