“Then he showed me a river of the water of life, clear as crystal, coming from the throne of God and of the Lamb, in the middle of its street. On either side of the river was the tree of life, bearing twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit every month; and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.” (Revelation 22:1&2)
Lately it’s been pretty cold around here. Sunny but cold! Last Sunday was a bit warmer than usual though and I figured I better take advantage of it. Ideally, what I had in mind, was a drive to the beach or to a mountain trail where I could explore some beautiful, pristine, terrain. But since I hadn’t really planned for anything and I didn’t want to be away from my family all day, I figured I better just pick some place close to home. I’ve been enjoying photographing some of the more unique bridges around, and so I decided to check out the train trussle that crosses the Willamette in downtown Salem.
As I drove by, however, I wasn’t feeling very inspired by the highly populated bridge which about a decade ago was remodeled into a pedestrian walkway. Yes, it’s still a very cool structure and I love that it still has practical use, but I wasn’t sure I wanted to compete with the agenda of everyone else who was using it that day. So, I decided to explore further into the downtown area and then, very intentionally, I prayed to God, “Please lead me to a place where I can see something truly unique, and capture a picture of it, and be inspired.”
While looking for a parking place by the city hall building I noticed Pringle Creek, and noted how a portion of it diverged to run through the City Hall courtyard area.
That’s pretty cool! I thought. I wonder where they got the idea to do something like this? I walked down close to the water’s edge. There was a few ducks swimming around and a bright green copper statue of a Heron. I’ve’ never been a big fan of fake stuff, particularly in natural environments. Perhaps in this case city planners just wanted to make sure that the park felt like a place where the wild birds would want to be,…even if it wasn’t.
Next I followed the trail up and across street to Pringle Creek Plaza, a place where the creek waters have been pumped to an even higher level above the actual creek, and where a very impressive aggregate landscape divides the creek waters into postmodern shaped pools, canals and water falls.
I wondered how much it cost to build a place like this and maintain it. I wondered also how habitable it was to the local wild and plant life. And was it a place where one was allowed to swim in the summer? A man sleeping on the nearby bench assured me that at least someone was enjoying it.
Leaving the plaza area the concrete gave way to a more natural looking creek with crushed rocks along the edges. This is where the language of the Revelation 22 passage began to come to me, about a river running through the middle of the street…
Perhaps there was more to this place than just an artificially crafted water feature. Kneeling at the waters edge I noticed a pretty little fern growing up under the concrete, some moss and ivy spreading out along the rocks, and the Sun light reflecting off the relatively clear looking water.
When I turned to go back up onto the path I noticed something else, less inspiring, lying in the grass. A used syringe; the evidence of some broken soul’s escape from reality. I wondered if I should pick it up, to protect someone who might try reusing it. But then decided that at least for today I wasn’t there to change the environment, or the people who exist there, but just to observe,… and hopefully learn.
Just then a man who had been pacing up and down the plaza inquired if I had seen any baby ducklings where I was at. I said that I hadn’t, and asked why he was looking. He said that there had been 11 of them in the area yesterday, but that he could only see 8 of them today. I asked him where the ducklings were hanging out now and he explained where he last saw them.
As the creek meandered into a more open area, I immediately noticed a host of mallard ducks happily swimming around and bathing themselves. For me, the mood of the park had instantly changed.
At first I couldn’t see the baby ducklings or their mother because they were camouflaged so well in the rocks. I wondered how many other passers by missed them, just sitting there at the water’s edge, but in plain sight.
What a contrast! I thought. Walking through downtown I had noticed several homeless and drug addicted looking folks hiding out of plain sight, under bridges, and along the bushes that line the train tracks. But here in the open, sun filled stream, was a perfectly healthy looking family.
Only things were not as ideal as they seemed, for as I counted the chicks I noticed that there were indeed only eight of them now. Perhaps this park was not the perfect haven that it appeared to be on the surface.
The man who had been looking for the missing ducklings showed up again with a bag of bread. Immediately all of the ducks in the area rushed upon him and he began feeding them. I wanted to take a picture of this but he asked me not to because he said he wasn’t really supposed to be doing it. When his bag was nearly empty he crossed over to the other side to share some bread with another species of duck that was keeping its distance from the others. He said it was a Muscovy, which are generally native to South America. However, this one had made this place his home for about three years now. A lady walked by me just then and confirmed the same information. She said she felt sorry for the old duck who appeared to have no mate or family. It did seem like a sad case. I wondered if he had suffered a debilitating injury and could not physically fly away, or if this was just where he felt most at home. Either way, at least he did have sympathizers.
At the east end of the park it narrows, where the neighboring street converges with the buildings to the South side of the park. And so, in order to make a safe way over to the Willamette University buildings they built a set of underpass tunnels. What an amazing effort and expense they went to, I thought, just to more easily accommodate those leaving or entering the park from that end. Certainly one could navigate an alternative street crossing but the planners decided that this unique feature was worth the effort.
A homeless person thought it was especially convenient for them, and had set up camp in the first tunnel. Ironically the adjacent building and apartments are owned by the Salem Housing Authority. And I thought it was an interesting contrast to see this very impressive housing structure, designed specifically to help with housing the homeless, towering over someone’s tent, pitched in a tunnel beneath.
This is the irony of the city. No matter how invested and carefully planned mankind’s efforts are to resolve the hardships of life, there are always blind spots, unintended consequences and cracks, sometimes very large ones, that certain people fall into and can’t seem to escape. And so, despite the efforts to make a more equitable and compassionate society, certain parts of the human condition can not easily be undone. The brokenness just seems to go deeper than what external human interventions can solve.
Some believe it won’t always be this way though. They point to the prophecies of Isaiah and John, who foretold of an age when “the former things will be forgotten”, when “every tear will be wiped away” and rejoicing will be the norm rather than sadness. At such a time God’s presence is described to be so close that “before they can call out to Him He will answer, and while they are still speaking He will hear”. Further more Isaiah declares, “The wolf and the lamb will graze together and the lion will eat straw like the ox; and dust will be the serpent’s food. They will do no harm in my Holy mountain, says the Lord”. (Isaiah 65:17 & 24-25).
On the surface this vision of a kind of Utopia, where all physical needs are no more and even predator creatures assume a peaceful posture, seems quite attractive! But my question is: Is an exact remake of the Garden of Eden really what it’s all about? Why the tens of thousands of years of struggle just to get us back where we started? And if we messed things up before, then what makes us so sure that we wouldn’t just do it again?
One thing I have been learning from other serious students of the Scriptures is that Utopia has never been a part of God’s promise or vision for humanity. Even in Eden there were temptations, and the potential for self-harm. Then, in the New Heavens and Earth, described in Ezekiel and then in Revelation, what the vision offers is not another garden but a city. And not just a city, with all of the infrastructure that make for an advanced civilization, but a city that has at its center God’s presence with the raw and organic elements of water and trees springing forth to hydrate and nourish everything within that “city”. Really it’s something that looks more like a park! (See Ezekiel 47:1-12 and Revelation 22:1-6)
Upon closer examination of these and other relevant passages we can see that terms like “New Creation”, the “New Heavens and Earth”, the “New Jerusalem” are not wooden literal descriptions of external conditions but rather metaphorical illustrations of relational dynamics. The relationship between God and us, and us and other human beings is always the focus of Scripture. Just as Jesus is not a literal Lamb, or Lion, even though He is called that, we must not assume the street and, and the river and the trees growing upon its sides are literal streets, rivers, or trees. To do so is not only superficial but to miss the point.
One thing that the Revelation passages declare with emphatic emphasis, again and again, is that this new order of creation is very immanent (“at hand”, “coming quickly”, and “must soon take place”), and that it was stated to seven churches who existed nearly 2000 years ago! And so we must conclude that whatever it was that John was prophesying of must already have happened, or else it is a false promise, with no bearing upon us today. I don’t think it was a false promise though! I just think much of humanity has yet to wake up to the reality of this new kind of covenantal creation and spiritual order that was initiated when the Spirit of Christ began to flow freely. (See John 7:37).
And so as I walked back through the park I prayed to have the sight to see how our Heavenly Father’s kingdom and personal touch is at work in this imperfect world that we live. I came to a bench donated in honor of someone named Tim and Michael Triplett of whom it states “You brought us smiles”. Sadly though, the bench was much abused, even lit on fire at some point,…I hope not while someone was sleeping on it. But it made me wonder, who had the idea of placing the bench there in the first place? Maybe it was the Holy Spirit moving upon somebody’s heart! Perhaps that same Holy Spirit nudge will move again in somebody’s heart to repair the bench and make it serviceable again.
The next thing that caught my attention was the wrought iron fence surrounding a large office building. Looking through the fence I noticed that they had a very attractive courtyard. Clearly the business that owned this pretty creek front property intended to keep it looking nice, and by not allowing the local squatters to impede. My initial reaction was, How sad is that?
Then, as I came around the corner of the building I noticed a sign that said “Saif” with their company moto beneath, “Work. Life. Oregon.” Wow! I thought, that kind of sounds like how some trendy new church would advertise their community outreach program. They had a much more inviting looking entry area, with a large lobby, and out front an Oregon and United States Flag staged prominently and flying at half-staff.
Apparently the reason for this, I found out later, was to honor the recently deceased President Jimmy Carter. Strangely, though, during the whole time I was standing there only the United States flag was catching any wind and flapping. I’m still not sure what to make of this phenomena, as it was the Oregon flag that was up wind from the US flag and should have been receiving at least as much of the air. Perhaps it was divine intervention, trying to communicate that Oregon is currently less inspired and moved by the Holy Spirit than the Nation is as a whole…but that is just a guess. What I did begin to perceive is that this not-for-profit organization, which literally has as its aim to help workers recover from injuries, is perhaps like a “tree of life”, planted in this park and city and state to help bring healing where it is needed. The fence that surrounds the back side of the building is not there just to keep trouble makers out, just as the walls of the New Jerusalem are not there to keep people out, but to make sure that they come in through the entry place where they can be properly acknowledged and cared for.
Taking a look around at the other buildings and business, I wondered if there were other “trees of life” hidden in plain sight, feeding not off the literal waters of the creek, or off the good intent of well meaning city planners, but actually off of the power flowing from the throne of Almighty God.
Perhaps at the nearby restaurant, or music store, or University campus, just adjacent to the park “trees of life” are covering those in need with their leaves, and bearing the fruit of good works year around, but that it just doesn’t fit into my paradigm of how God works. Honestly, its only been recently that I have been able to think outside specific theological confines and imagine God moving in people and institutions that don’t necessarily align with my own personal convictions. Even last year I don’t know if I would have been able to receive this revelation. The truth is I am a sucker for perfection. Not that I think I am perfect, but that I am moved by a God who is clearly concerned about order and detail and beauty, like this gorgeous Mallard. And so I expect this level of perfection to be flowing from both me and others if it is truly Divinely inspired.
What I’ve come to realize though, is that “picture perfect” is just that. It’s only a superficial image, a framing of reality that doesn’t allow for the often messy and incomplete bigger picture. The truth is God is not confined by the neat little boxes that we like to put Him in. Strangely, He let the Jewish people do just that to Him! For some 1500 years He let a group of exclusivist zealots set up shop in the middle east and pretend like they were the center of the world, managing the only temple of God on earth. We know that paradigm didn’t end well for them. Even today, 2000 years later, not one stone is left upon another that made up that religious system. And yet how many have we tried to rebuild such external edifices? I won’t name any names here, but sadly too many have.
The box I often put God is the one that confines worship and service to Him within traditional Christian church practices. It’s hard for me to imagine authentic worship or service to God taking place outside the explicitly stated doctrines of the Apostles Creed. But I am coming to see that many of the manifestations of His Holy Spirit, and the healing and fruit that it is producing are happening, indeed, outside the confines of my understanding.
I found a couple of truly inspirational videos about the Saif corporation and The Salem Housing authority on Youtube today and it really challenged me to consider a broader scope for the manifestation of God’s Holy Spirit. If the biblical prophets are right the Spirit of God is covering the earth as the waters cover the sea. (See Habakkuk 2:14, and Ezekiel 47) That’s pretty broad! And I want to have eyes to see it and revel too in what He is doing.
Even if the deep soul healing that I think Revelation 22:2 is talking about can only come about through a specific acknowledgement of the blood and body of Christ I still must conclude that God’s spirit is indeed at work on a broader scale, ministering to His world through people and institutions that to one degree or another are extending His mercy and grace.
Through Spiritual Eyes 