Good Morning Garden

Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive them that trespass against us (Matthew 6:12).

This clause is the turning point of the Prayer. It is the strategic key. Having told us what God is, what man is, how the universe work, how we are to do our own work, what our true nourishment or supply is, and the way in which we can obtain it, he now comes to the forgiveness of sins.

The forgiveness of sins is the central problem of life. Sin is a sense of separation from God, and is the major tragedy of human experience. It is, of course, rooted in selfishness. It is essentially an attempt to gain some supposed good to which we are not entitled in justice. It is a sense of isolated, self-regarding, personal existence; whereas the Truth of Being is that all is One. Our true selves are at one with God, undivided from Him, expressing His ideas, witnessing to His nature. Because we are all one with the great Whole of which we are spiritually a part, it follows that we are one with all men.

Evil, sin, the fall of man, in fact, is essentially the attempt to negate this Truth. We try to live apart from God. We act as though we could have plans and purposes and interests separate from Him. All this, if it were true, would mean that existence is not one and harmonious, but a chaos of competition and strife. But, of course, it is not true, and therein lays the joy of life.

Separation from God is what drove mankind from the Eden God created for us. Adam and Eve’s sin was to remove themselves from God’s will and to established their free will apart from God. While this was necessary to bring bring forgiveness, reconciliation and ultimately salvation into human existence, it nonetheless brought sin into the world and separated us from God and the Garden. Our history in faith has been the story of our return to the Garden and to unity with God. In order to find our Eden and reside there; we must face our sin and weakness; accept that obedience to God and unity with God and man are the will of God and we must express that will of God in our thoughts, words and deeds. Then we will be one with all people, forgiving them as God forgives us. and we will be one with God living each day in our Garden.

Stan