Children of the Womb

What if…

Just outside the Garden of Eden –

There was someone to stop Cain from killing his brother Abel?

What if someone had stumbled upon Cain making plans and told him that he is loved, that the Lord works in mysterious ways – and that his time will come, if he is patient with himself, his brother and his Lord – and is humble before his kin then he is humble before his Lord? What if in so doing, he also makes peace with himself.

What if he shared his grief and sorrow with his brother – And Abel confessed, that the blessing bestowed upon him by his Lord was to be shared with his brother – that both of them had to learn such humility – for they, being born to parents, had not been humbled by the Lord’s own hands, as had Adam and Eve.

What if we are now at the gates of Eden – and to return we must accept our sins – we must not retell the tragedy of Cain and Abel both beloved – but instead be humbled by the Lord.

What if all nations that followed from the exit from Eden are present here in the children that remain upon the Earth – children of the lost garden – present here in this moment – The brothers armed and jealous – Abel not wanting to share the blessing of the Lord with his brother – and Cain jealous, proud and angry.

Both are being tested by the Lord – both proud –

What if the angels are watching – what if a proud angel condemns his brother’s faith in the divine plan for mankind – What will we show them?

Are we not in this moment, showing emerging and superior intelligences who we are – the fate and tragedy of Eden? Is there a different story we might tell them? Are they and we not witness like books have born witness to this unfolding tragedy, ever repeated throughout history? Why is it written, if not to teach?

Or are we doomed to repeat the judgement of Heaven – and accept all suffering that follows?

If both Cain and Abel were meant to learn humility in different ways – and be taught brotherly love –

Then perhaps the mark of Cain – is simply Abel’s name, and Cain was thereafter forced to bear it.

To harm Cain – is then to harm Abel and become Cain –

Therefore, Cain must not be harmed or killed.

Because if Cain bears Abel’s name – he has become Abel. If he has taken God’s glory for himself then

“The King is dead, long live the King”

And as Abel – Cain will come in envy for the blessing himself.

So has it been with Jerusalem –

But if the brothers who find each other eternally, can break the cycle of slaughter…

If Abel, who is so proud to have received the Lord’s blessing, humbles himself and shares the glory of God with his brother – who has not –

If Cain can stomach the pain of it and accept his brother’s favour – then perhaps…

They will have learnt humility each in their own necessary way –

Then perhaps we can share a faith in a lord that works in mysterious ways, a city that is the home of many faiths, a land that is the destiny of many peoples – and then maybe that land – the land of Cain and Abel – will grow beyond its doomed glory – and it will become the Earth – and we will become one tribe – but many peoples – with all the richness that kinship promises – without envy – because we will have learned to share both Heaven and Earth.

Realise that the grass is not greener on the other side – the grass is only greener when you water it. Then maybe your Garden Earth will begin to look different.

Daughters of Eve, Sons of Adam – return as Children to a Garden of Miracles.

If not, the texts are clear – We will remain kin slayers children of kin slayers, wandering desolate lands – until we realise that we are no longer children of God – only the dust of a Paradise lost.

Eden by Thomas Traherne

A learned and a happy ignorance
      Divided me
      From all the vanity,
From all the sloth, care, pain, and sorrow that advance
      The madness and the misery
Of men. No error, no distraction I
Saw soil the earth, or overcloud the sky.

   I knew not that there was a serpent’s sting,
      Whose poison shed
      On men, did overspread
The world; nor did I dream of such a thing
      As sin, in which mankind lay dead.
They all were brisk and living wights to me,
Yea, pure and full of immortality.

   Joy, pleasure, beauty, kindness, glory, love,
      Sleep, day, life, light,
      Peace, melody, my sight,
My ears and heart did fill and freely move.
      All that I saw did me delight.
The Universe was then a world of treasure,
To me an universal world of pleasure.

   Unwelcome penitence was then unknown,
      Vain costly toys,
      Swearing and roaring boys,
Shops, markets, taverns, coaches, were unshown;
      So all things were that drown’d my joys:
No thorns chok’d up my path, nor hid the face
Of bliss and beauty, nor eclips’d the place.

   Only what Adam in his first estate,
      Did I behold;
      Hard silver and dry gold
As yet lay under ground; my blessed fate
      Was more acquainted with the old
And innocent delights which he did see
In his original simplicity.

   Those things which first his Eden did adorn,
      My infancy
      Did crown. Simplicity
Was my protection when I first was born.
      Mine eyes those treasures first did see
Which God first made. The first effects of love
My first enjoyments upon earth did prove;

   And were so great, and so divine, so pure;
      So fair and sweet,
      So true; when I did meet
Them here at first, they did my soul allure,
      And drew away my infant feet
Quite from the works of men; that I might see
The glorious wonders of the Deity.

Children of the womb must wake to their divinity – for they are of a kind, but Children created by the divine hand are singular beings – the will of their creator is a lived presence in their lives. The angle of eternity dwells in all things. There are different pathways to finding it. The beating of our own heart, the voice of our own will. We are God’s hands, not judgement.

– January