I feel as though all my life I have looked at this image in my mind, known it, and seen it as my desire, believed in my interpretation of it. And now I see that it was a façade. How, not knowing even myself, were I to know my heart’s desires? How am I to have tasted of the Garden of Delight without having seen its fruit? It’s something like this.
Beyond me lies a field lush and living, filled with breathing things, trees and grasses, flowers vibrant and fragrant; a sky clear and bright, birds on feathered wings in its lofty heights singing songs of new days and warm light. In front of me stands a wall of crystal glass. All about its face I have painted my own designs, my own ideas — distorted and twisted ever so slightly, smudged and unclear. Without intending to do so, I’ve covered over and discolored the meadow beyond, and lost sight of it. It has been a gradual, indeed a lifelong process, yet slowly but surely I’ve become blind to what was once a clear and present beauty. At times I’ve even mistaken the painted glass for the true thing beyond. In many ways I have become content with my counterfeit.
As I have drawn nearer to the Lord, He has begun clearing away the glass, showing me the field I was meant to linger in, the peace I was meant to have. It is a different place than I had thought, an altogether more beautiful and true place, a place of freedom. I needn’t paint it, needn’t make it anything other than it is, for my Father has made it, and it is good, altogether beautiful and pleasant. He is opening up to me wide lands, fertile valleys, groves of rich trees and mountains weighty with glory. He leads me beside still waters, and keeps me in paths of righteousness. Surely goodness and grace shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the very shadow of the Almighty, till the end of end.