A child’s paradise in the summer is a visit to her grandfather’s small dairy farm in central New York. It was my privilege to experience this for a few summers with my four siblings. I called it Paradise, because we had the run of the house, barn, fields and hill without a single chore to do. Farms used to be organized around a cycle of chores, both indoors and out, but as visitors we were free to explore the hay loft ( and sometimes discover a new litter of kittens), the creek, or ride on the hay wagon. In good weather we ate our meals on my grandparents’ back porch and slept like babies when we went early to bed.

Boiled potatoes were often on the menu for those dinners. I watched my father mash and butter his until I passed my plate for him to do the same for me. Even then I knew that his potatoes were getting cold while he mashed mine, but he never complained or even hesitated to take my plate. The house was built on the top of a hill rising from the Susquehanna River. The back porch overlooked the river.

My father wasn’t a guest on the farm, as we children were. He helped his father in the fields, and in digging a well for the house. He was almost always busy with chores. Dad liked the out doors, but he worked hard when we were at the farm.

Then the angel showed me (John) the river of the water of life, as clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the lamb, down the middle of the great street of the city. On each side of the river stood the tree of life, bearing twelve crops of fruit, yielding it’s fruit every month. And the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations. ( Revelation 22:1-2)

In this passage the angel describes the end of the sinful world as a restoration of Eden itself, as if God’s direction from the very beginning has been fully and abundantly to restore His original creation. I believe this is true, and that visiting the farm with no chores was a real picture of God’s plan in the mind of a child.

The world today is very different from the hope held out in John’s Revelation, but the evidence of God’s plan is with us still, and the healing and grace brought to us by Christ are the earnest money in the Revelation. St. Pope John Paul II wrote, “Today our feet are washed again by Jesus every time we pray, ‘Forgive us our sins.’ ” It is a gift unencumbered by chores.

Love in Him,

Prue