Posted by Alexis on February 21, 19100 at 19:36:05:
I am walking in a dark city. It is day yet the shadows of the buildings are lengthening and the breeze that blows through is cool. I am carrying my young son and holding him close to keep him warm. As we walk deeper into the city, it is much as if we were entering into an old growth forest. It continues to darken until it seems as if it were night time. The path we followed not only brought us deeper INTO the city, but also ran DOWN while the building tops remain level (therefore the buildings were growing taller). We come to an alleyway. It is littered with broken glass and refuse. Suddenly a presence is beside me. A man presence. He holds onto my arm (and he looks like a normal man. there is nothing to fear) and guides me toward the wall. I am safe in his keeping and there is nothing that can harm me within the city.
We go to the end of the alley and there is a dark wall with a golden wood gate. We open this simple rustic gate out onto a garden. It is warm, in the height of summer and there is a scented smell of flowers in bloom. Dust motes fly on the air and cottonwood fluff catches the light as it dances over the river that is across the garden. It is a wild garden, with long tall grasses and wild flowers, vine roses, tigerlilies, everything touched with gold. The presence beside me is golden also and is much a part of the light as the sun is. He enters first and I follow. A man is waiting for me. I hand my son to him (who wants to talk about everything and play with that man) and he and the presence are in many ways the same. The presence is truly Jesus-like (not in looks.. in sense) and the man is a good friend. The man places his arm around my waist and I lean my head on his shoulder. My son is in his arms and laughing at butterflies and the flitting lights that shiver across the river. Great cottonwoods and elms and oaks follow the side of the river to create a small copse that we might go to. The gate is not a part of a boundary. This garden has no boundaries. It is endless and always summer. We, the three of us, are entering into it to be there and to remain out of the city forever. The presence is the guiding force behind it all and is a part of the man with his arm around my waist. They are connected and are a guide and a safe haven for me and for my son.