31 for 21: Eden

*I've joined a blogging challenge for the month of October: Blog every day in October in honor of National Down Syndrome Awareness Month (Down syndrome is medically defined as Trisomy 21, and there are 31 days in October, hence the name 31 for 21). My posts will not necessarily be about Down syndrome, but I am writing as a person who 1) loves many people w/Down syndrome and other disabilities and 2) desires for others to be able to see what I see: remarkably unique people with much to offer to the world* 

Today my family got together for a 1-day-belated birthday celebration for my mom and a several-days-early birthday celebration for me.  One of several sweet gifts I got was the new Andrew Peterson cd, and in it was this quote by J.R.R. Tolkien about Eden:

"We all long for it, and we are constantly glimpsing it: our whole nature at its best and least corrupted, its gentlest and most humane, is still soaked with a sense of 'exile'."

I find this quote to be so lovely.  Today's sermon in church was about the history of "waiting" in the Bible, the many characters, major and minor, who experienced some type of waiting.  And so I think this quote especially resonated with me today as I think of longing for heaven, of having to wait.  Right now, we are stuck in exile, and it is hard. There are paradises at either end of the Bible, and we are stuck in between them.

I think that as I head back into work, into a week that is sure to be full of unique challenges and frustrating circumstances, it is helpful to remember that there is a paradise awaiting, and that I am waiting for it.  When I'm face to face with other sinners, whose sins make my days harder; when I'm face to face with bodies that don't work as they should; when I'm faced with the heartache of people often shunned by society, it is good to remember what I'm waiting for.  And when the week is going well, when I'm faced with major triumphs achieved by my clients, with sweet tender moments between them, with those feel-good moments that do inevitably occur even in the hardest of weeks...even then, in those "gentle" and "humane" moments, it is good to remember that this is no Eden, and this is no heaven, and that what I'm waiting for is immeasurably greater.  That the one WHOM I'm waiting for is greater still.

"And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, 'Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man.  He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God.  He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away." - Revelation 21:3-4