Tag: Garden of Eden

Space to Grow & Grace to Flow

On By Paul1 Comment

By P Chong                                                                              23 November 2011

Taj Mahal world heritage site in Agra, India.
Image via Wikipedia

When talking about space, there are areas which are normally familiar to the man in the street. There are indeed also indefinite concepts in scientific terms as used by geometers and physicists which we may not know or understand. Suffice for me to touch on some personal thoughts relating to peace & harmony, privacy, friendship, love & emotion . . . and space in the physical living or playing fields.

Even then there are confines or boundaries beyond which we may never know, and of course, there is that spiritual aspect of things where grace sets in.

In January 2007 when my friend CC & his lovely wife Phyllis were travelling & sightseeing in New Delhi to Taj Mahal in Agra, India, they passed through the countryside where some grand new villas were under construction. He noticed a large poster with these words:

GIVE SPACE SOME GRACE, AND

GIVE GRACE SOME SPACE.

Till today he remembers it well and often reflect upon those memorable words, sharing them with his friends, architects, developers and his soccer-playing grandchildren. According to him, life is often preoccupied with time & space and with grace giving us lessons in various ways.

Lately, while watching his grandchildren playing soccer, realisation dawned on him of the need of an optimum playing field where space is paramount for level play with ease or difficulty of attack & defence. He recalled & visualised the “space” concept in terms of a restricted number of 11 players & one goal-keeper in each team and where in winning the game all available spaces must be covered & exploited. Success in life to him means preempting the right positioning in space. His grandchildren are fortunate to have a grandfather with wisdom to impart.

In further extension of my thought:

  • Space is taken to overcome all boundaries, inhibitions & restrictions to explore & conquer . . . turning all adversities to victories. Space however is timeless as opposed to our limited existence.

  • Grace is herewith defined as a divinely given talent or blessing, the free & unmerited favour of God. It’s got to flow from God to fill within us & then exert forth to the external. Grace is unseen, non-materialistic and unlimited flowing from God for our faith & asking. As goodness grows, blessings flow.

From the womb to the tomb, we need space to grow . . . to equip ourselves in our daily life to intern, specialise and then to fraternise. As is said, no man is an island. We are by nature gregarious and cannot live alone. We need company. We need partner and that is why God provided Adam with Eve. Within the limitless space of the Garden of Eden, freedom & choice were available except for the forbidden fruit. What happened next resulted in the pain & suffering of mankind.

Freedom to chose & choice to make are really no option whatsoever. Inevitably, man by his own doing destroy the space & environment in which he lives. By our own strength we are powerless and though “impossible” is the word not to be found in Napoleon Bonaparte’s dictionary, not all things are possible with man. Only with God all things are possible. With “space to grow” we need “God’d grace to flow”.

Give grace some space, for man is no master of space. It sours the souls of those greedy for space by intrusion & exploitation, thereby destroying both peace & harmony . . . as exemplified by the turmoils in the Middle East & the Arab world. Under the guise of democracy, everything has gone crazy. The need for regime change is a nagging & ragging righteousness with no resultant merit except unnecessary death, pain & suffering. Nobody ever wins in a war!

Make friends not enemies. The irony is you may have but one enemy, you’re bound to face him everywhere! Negotiation rather than confrontation as with diplomacy opposed to being artless or tactless or hypocrisy. Give space to sovereignty, for aggression will meet with further aggression. Let every sovereignty grow & progress. Encroach not upon its nest.

Let moderation & good sense prevail and senselessness be assailed. LET GO & LET GOD. Don’t ever push yourself too hard. As is said in Ecclesiastes 3:17: “God will bring to judgment both the righteous & the wicked, for there will be a time for every activity, a time for every deed.”

Wait upon the Lord!

Have No Fear . . . God Is Near

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"The Garden of Eden" by Thomas Cole ...
Image via Wikipedia- The Garden of Eden by Thomas Cole (c. 1828)

By P Chong       Wed. 1 September 2010

From the womb to the tomb there is but one room

And that’s up in heaven or down in Hell

Where you’d forever dwell & yell!

Morbid as it may sound, especially on this beautiful first day of Spring, nothing is further from the truth. Ever since the downfall of mankind through the disobedience of Adam & Eve, man has been cast out of the Garden of Eden into the realm of evil & temptations. However, Father God in His graciousness & everlasting mercy has forgiven us & forgotten that act of human disobedience, but the consequences of that act cannot be avoided. Our physical death, the pain of childbirth, sickness & ailments, unending human problems & sufferings are, to name some, the consequences of sin we have to bear.

There is no escaping. Death is a certainty. Death comes to everybody. It has no respect for class, status or creed. Popular writer-teacher Leo Buscaglia used to say, “Remember, no one will get out of this world alive!”

There is a wonderful legend of the servant of a wealthy merchant. He was in a marketplace of Baghdad securing provisions for his master when he had the most frightful experience of his life. When he rushed into his master’s house a few minutes later, his colour had drained completely from his face.

“What’s the matter with you? It looks as though you have seen a ghost!” the master inquired.

“Master,” the servant replied, “I have just seen DEATH in the marketplace, and when he saw me, he raised his arm to strike me. Please master, I am certain he means to take me. Loan me your fastest horse so that I can get away.”

“But where will you go?” asked the merchant.

“I will go to Samarra,” explained the servant. “DEATH will not find me there.”

So the merchant gave his servant the fastest horse in his stables, and the servant rode swiftly off to the city of Samarra where he hoped to hide.

The merchant later went to the market to get his own supplies. While there he too saw DEATH. So he inquired of DEATH, “Why did you raise your hand to strike my servant a while ago?”

Death replied, “Actually I meant him no harm ast that moment. Raising my hand was a gesture of surprise. You see, I didn’t expect to find him here, for I have an appointment with him tonight at Samarra!”

The servant of Baghdad would discover that no matter how fast the horse not how far the journey, he could not escape his appointment with DEATH.

To allay you fear, here’s an amusing episode which bears out the best explanation of DEATH ever:

A sick man turned to his doctor as he was preparing to leave the examination room and said, ”Doctor, I am afraid to die. Tell me what lies on the other side.”

Very quietly, the doctor said, “I don’t know.”

”You don’t know? You’re a Christian man, and don’t know what’s on the other side?”

The doctor was holding the handle of the door; on the other side came a sound of scratching and whining, and as he opened the door, a dog sprang into the room and leaped on him with an eager show of gladness.

Turning to the patient, the doctor said, ”Did you notice my dog? He’s never been in this room before. He didn’t know what was inside. He knew nothing except that his master was here, and when the door opened, he sprang in without fear. I know little of what is on the other side of death, but I do know one thing . . . I know my Master is there and that is enough.”

Have no trouble, have no fear

For God is near.

Put your faith & trust in Him

And He’ll guide you through thick & thin.