Issue 948 – A Strange Garden – January 3, 2023
I awoke from a strange dream. It was a dream about a garden, but not just a typical garden. My dream landscape was populated with images of people, places and situations I have seen in real life.
I was driving into “the” city; I don’t know what city; I just knew I was headed for “the city.” I could see the smog from a long way off. It sat like a heavy gray blanket over everything, slowly choking the life out of all it covered. Even the brilliantly coloured hot air balloons looked gray.
I drove past the refineries belching toxic fumes. I continued past the mound of rusted old car bodies that seemed fifty feet high, waiting for their eventual crushing and recycling. Decaying buildings with faded signs sat vacant; boards covered in graffiti over what windows that once let light into busy businesses.
The drunks staggered along the street. Hookers tried to look sexy but appeared grotesque as they showed their tired, drug-filled, abused bodies to people going by. One looked fifteen going on forty. Another looked 25 going on 65.
Junkies made dope deals. There was no effort to be discrete. Shared needles added AIDS, hepatitis and more to their already burdened lives.
The lady pushing her shopping cart, filled with all she owned, stopped in the middle of the intersection. She screamed at the bus driver something about aliens and then carried on talking to herself.
The casinos were booming, and it was still the breakfast hour. Desperate people were pulling the machine handle or sitting for one more deal as they dreamed of making it big. An ad for the latest massive jackpot from the government-run lottery splashed across a billboard, a cruel tax on the broken dreams of desperate people.
A panhandler aggressively sought spare change. The lineup of people waiting for breakfast outside the soup kitchen ran down the block and around the corner.
The police cordoned off the scene of the latest in gangland killings. Posters with the faces of missing people plastered the utility poles.
Harried rush hour drivers cursed and swore at every delay. They simultaneously gulped coffee, fixed their makeup and talked on the cell phone. They wanted to be anywhere except in the traffic or perhaps their destinations.
At the light, a filthy-looking teen spat on the windshield of a stopped car and then wiped it with a dirty rag. The window was dirtier than when he started, but he yelled at the driver for not giving him a tip.
The newspaper headlines said something about political corruption and corporate scandal. The radio news talked of a war overseas, an earthquake and the latest on rainforest deforestation.
It was a strange form of a garden, Satan’s garden of Eden. He revelled in the despair and destruction.
The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. John 10:10a
It’s a far cry from the paradise God intended for us to live in. I could understand why Milton called his epic poem “Paradise Lost.”
It’s not without hope, though. God is still in control and He sent His Son to the rescue.
I came that they may have life and have it abundantly. John 10:10b
He’s coming back, and He’ll restore paradise.
But according to his promise we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells. 2 Peter 3:13
Satan may be revelling in the havoc that reigns and over the destruction that goes on, but he doesn’t get the last laugh.
Don’t allow yourself to be drawn into the hopelessness that much of the world sees. We have hope, a hope that overcomes, we have Jesus Christ, and He will bring us through it all.
Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God, and everyone who loves the Father loves whoever has been born of him. By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and obey his commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome. For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith. Who is it that overcomes the world except the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God? 1 John 5:1-5
Until next time rejoice amid the darkness because the darkness cannot prevail. “We shall overcome” is more than a folk song; it is a promise from God Almighty.
Be Blessed
Hallelu Yah / Praise God
Kevin
Gleanings From The Word
Experience an extraordinary God in ordinary life.
Soli Deo Gloria (For the glory of God alone)
__________________________________________
Please like and share this post with friends and your circle of influence. Also, feel free to comment.
Subscribe today https://mailchi.mp/f27bbeb09c22/ gleanings-1
_____________
We also have a website
https://gleaningsfromtheword.com
______________________________
All contents, “Gleanings From The Word” and “Experience an Extraordinary God in Ordinary Life,” are © 2001, 2023 K.F. “Kevin” Corbin Gleanings From The Word.
Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture is from the English Standard Version (ESV).
___________________________________________
#Gleanings #theWord #devotional #encouragement #Biblestudy #faith #dailyBible #verseoftheday #GleaningsFromTheword #KevinCorbin #bible #jesus #god #faith #christian #love #Christ #Father #pray #Holyspirit #YHWH #yahweh #Jehovah #bibleverses #jesuschrist #church #prayer #christianity #scripture #gospel #hope #truth #godisgood #worship #believe #blessed #amen #grace #Word #garden #ParadiseLost #NewHeaven #overcomer #urbanDecay #urbanRot #hope