Historical setting: 584 C.E. The garden path of Eve
Eve is still feeling she’s to blame in the death of Little Margey because she couldn’t save her. We are talking about forgiveness. “Do you know God loves you?”
“Of course Papa. And this pagan healer doesn’t need to hear your God words over this. It was God who came and took her away!”
“So you have to forgive God, and then forgive yourself. That’s a lot of forgiving you have to do before you can know you are forgiven too.”
“I don’t need a sermon, Papa. Your friend the old monk came up here when Ezra and Daniel were yet stacking the stones over little Margey and the old monk already said prayers and brought God into this. I didn’t go down there because I didn’t want to get God and God’s man involved in my own hurt. But then the old monk brought Colleta up here to tell me it wasn’t my fault. And I did sort of fear that Colleta blamed me, so it was good to hear her tell the old monk and also me that it wasn’t my fault.”
“So her parents don’t blame you, but do you still blame yourself?”
“The Jesus prayer only says ‘forgive us as we forgive others,’ It doesn’t say, ‘forgive us as we forgive ourselves and God too.’”
“Yes, but if you can blame God then don’t you suppose you will need to forgive God also?”
Eve takes a long pause, but the garden path has not circled back to the house yet. She gropes another topic though not a better one.
“So what other sorrows do you wish to ask of me?” She asks with her coldest commanding voice.
“I wanted to know of your blindness. When I was here last, did you know you were losing your sight?”
“Why does that matter Papa; are you seeking my forgiveness for your insensitivity then?”
“I guess I am. I argued that you needed to learn reading, yet you probably remembered how to read and also you knew that would be lost with your sight. So when I blamed you for letting loose of your childhood learning did you already know you were going blind?”
“Blindness is something I’ve known of even before I saw the shadows myself. People who have the scars of the pox as do I may have avoided the dark of death, but the dark of life is always before us.”
(Continues Tuesday, June 8)
Lazarus Ink 