Echoes of Eden

Back in 1998, our family took a vacation to Colorado.  While there, we went on a short hike in Rocky Mountain National Park.  As I recall, the trail extended north from Trail Ridge road.  I remember looking at a map and noting that we were indeed heading off into the wilderness.  The trail made its way through a valley with a small river.  Mountain peaks rose on either side.  It was a beautiful early summer day.  The valley was green with vegetation and wild flowers bloomed around us, but the mountain peaks were still snow covered.  

As we walked, I had the feeling that we were leaving civilization.  The trail was the only thing that betrayed the existence of another human besides our immediate family.  It was a wild and rugged country, but it was also extremely beautiful.  The majesty of the mountains was breathtaking.  It was a profoundly spiritual experience.

I have thought of that hike many times since.  What is it about experiences like it that touch something in our hearts so deeply?  That sparks a longing to keep walking away from the world in which we live, into paradise?  It is because experiences like these are as close as we can now get to Eden.  Something in our soul remembers and longs to return.  Eden still echoes in our hearts.

We hear that echo every time we pause for a few minutes to watch a sunset, to look at a sky full of stars on a very dark night, to walk through a woods at dusk, or to watch a sunrise over a foggy pond.  All of you know this feeling!  Deep inside us we hear a faint voice.  

God is calling!     

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