Souvenirs of Eden

Yesterday I went for my morning run with eyes wide open – and I found myself running amid bursts of glory.

Rimming the bank of our storm-water pond, the first splash of splendor was a stand of sumac, radiant with burnt-coral bronze leaves in the morning sun, seed-pods nutmeg-brown and bursting with plans for next year’s harvest.

Across the pond, a flock of ducks feasted with utter contentment on lilies and water grass. A blue heron vacated her perch for a lonely cove further away where she took up her luncheon vigil.

Completing my round of the pond I jogged along neighborhood streets past an aged Asian lady gesturing vigorously to me in the only language we shared, pointing to a sign announcing a garage sale she obviously wanted me to visit. We had no verbal tools in common, but she shared her simple humanity with me unabashedly, eagerly inviting me as a human companion - and prospective purchaser of whatever disposables she was selling.

In his book Heaven: the Heart’s Deepest Longing, Peter Kreeft describes the human face as a “souvenir from Eden”, the part of the body least affected by the fall, a reminder that matter was once perfectly transparent to mind. I saw a trace of Eden’s primal beauty writ large in that excited woman’s face.

A few blocks further on, I passed a rainbow chalked by a child on her driveway – the iconic sign of a world under the mercy of God. Next I spotted a memorial park bench honoring a deceased neighbor on a cul-de-sac named Edenwood Place. Death scars our cities and family lives, but here was a sign of neighborliness that shone grace and glory into the cul-de-sac of death.

Meanwhile my legs continued their plodding rhythms, my lungs obliged to fuel their motion and my brain kept the whole thing going long after my arms and legs and lungs asked us for a break. And I thought how utterly glorious is this thing called ‘activity’ – and what a well-designed machine! Not only am I running in a world sparkling with glory – I cart a bucket of it around inside my skin everywhere I go. Fast or slow, active or still, our bodies are a part of an astounding grandeur hidden behind the ordinariness of the world.

Downstream from Eden, there are myriad souvenirs of the Creator’s glory scattered in the most unexpected places. Go out and look around - open your eyes and there’s a chance that you’ll catch a glint or two that could even take your breath away.

If you see some, drop me a line and share the wonder with us all.