Good Morning Garden

Truth is within ourselves; it takes no rise
From outward things, whate’er you may believe.
There is an inmost center in us all,
Where truth abides in fullness; and around,
Wall upon wall, the gross flesh it in,
This perfect, clear perception—which is truth.

A baffling and perverting carnal mesh
Binds it, and makes all error; and to know,
Rather consists in opening out a way
Whence the imprisoned splendour may escape,
Than in effecting entry for a light
Supposed to be without.

—Robert Browning, “Paracelsus.” Part I

…Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free (John 8:32).

This poem is a beautiful and artful way of saying that all we seek is already within us trying to get out. Or as we say in the Good Morning Garden “As within, so without”. When we express God’s truth, our light shines forth affecting everything around us. It is when we commune with God and obey God’s will through our faith and the Holy Spirit that we allow this light to show forth. Nothing we seek comes from without. All that we seek comes from within through God’s will and through God’s love for us. In essence, we must overcome this “baffling and perverting carnal mesh” that we call ourselves if we are to be the temple we were created to be. Then, we will radiate the love, hope and faith that God placed in the “inmost center in us all”.