THE GARDEN OF GLORY +

     "I don't know what the weather is like in your area, but we had 2 1/2 days of rain insouthcentral Pennsylvania.  Our garden is SO happy!  I am just returning from my time outside at the "Tree of Life" where I meet with God.  The sun is finally making an appearance.  The air is crisp and blades of grass reach skyward, each holding a dew drop diamond on its finger.  Yesterday while home schooling in the living room my daughter Judah pointed outside our sliding glass doors.  "Hey, look!  Turkeys!"  Sure enough, two hens and a gobbler struttin' their stuff out there in the rain.  It cracks me up how turkeys always walk in a line.  Who makes them do that?  Their kindergarten teacher?  "Line up children!"  Haha!  They crack me up.


     Paul told us in Corinthians that there are various levels of glory in each creature God made.
39 All flesh is not the same flesh, but there is one flesh of men, and another flesh of beasts, and another flesh of birds, and another of fish. 40 There are also heavenly bodies and earthly bodies, but the glory of the heavenly is one, and the glory of the earthly is another. 41There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars; for star differs from star in glory (I Corinthians 15:39 - 41).


     The Bible can be called “The Story of the Glory”.  God created the earth, the animal and plant kingdoms, and the people in His image to be filled with and to even derive life from His glory.  Adam and Eve were not actually “naked” as we think of “naked”.  They were filled with and covered by the beautiful mantle of the lights of the glory of God.  When they sinned, that glory covering fell from them, and they saw they were naked without God’s glory.


     One day when our son was still in a high chair, we sat down to enjoy a late Saturday morning breakfast together as a family.  Our daughter Jennifer was a teen and our daughter Eden Glori was only a few months old.  (Yes, we have a daughter named Eden Glori, so you can see I've been into this subject for quite some time!)


     We sat Baby Eden in her removable swing chair on top of the table and, after prayer, Johnathan spoke up.  He looked at me, his eyes wide, and pointed to his baby sister.  He said, “Eden GLORY, Mommy.  Eden GLORY.”


     “That’s right Johnathan, her name is Eden Glori.”


     “NO.  Eden GLORY.”  He pointed as he continued speaking.  “And Johnathan GLORY, Daddy GLORY, Sissy GLORY, and Mommy GLORY.  And angel GLORY.”


     We all stared at each other.  He was two and a half. “What do you mean?” I asked.


     He explained that God told him this the night before.  He proceeded to let us know he saw a few more things besides God and he was in heaven.  Wow.  All I could think was, Well, the glory really is important to God.


     Before Eden Glori was born, I listened to teachings by Billye Brimm on “The Blood and the Glory”.  Billye explained that without the blood, there is no glory.  The whole Bible is the story of the glory.  When Adam and Eve sinned, they lost the glory.  Blood was shed so they could be covered with animal skins.  As Ron explained in the previous blog on the 4 gardens in the Bible, by the time we get to the Garden of Heaven in Revelation 22, that glory will be restored.  The destroyer of glory will be kicked out by the power of the blood of the Lamb and perfection will be possible and glory ours forever.  What a garden that will be!


     So it is that the garden and the glory bring us back to the cross—back to the blood of Jesus.  Is it any wonder we want to lift Jesus’ cross?  It is not only our symbol of salvation, it is the only way back to the glory—the Garden of Glory."

by Lift the Cross of Jesus!   April 24, 2012 at 9:26 AM
Hope Flinchbaugh