Gnostic Voyage

 
One beautiful warm and clear evening at twilight time. I decided to take a walk among the trees and forest. As it grew darker I followed the edge of the forest never daring to venture into the quickly darkening woods, any further than several trees deep. Peering through the trees in front of me I suddenly came upon an unexpected hill side meadow. The meadow rolled from side to side blooming with bright yellow buttercups, and dandelions, framed between Islands of clover in every shade of green that you could imagine.  
 
As I ventured up the small hill side, dandelions burst out from under my feet by the thousands sending their young out in every direction to get caught up by the light but steady evening breeze. When I arrived at the top of the hill, there appeared a perfectly placed boulder outcrop at center of the summit. It rose out
of the ground in a semi circular pattern and at it’s center lay a barrel shaped crevice with it’s edges all conveniently worn smooth and rounded, In this surprisingly comfortable weather softened stone crevice I sat. Gazing back down the hill to the forests edge, I noticed the fading sunlight reflecting off the
tiny little white fluffs of dandelion seeds that followed me up the hill still hanging onto the breeze. I watched as the tiny seeds safely parachuted down to the earth to receive it’s promise of life.  
 
   I then remembered that I heard a man called Christ once taught his crowd of followers that when a farmer sowed his seeds of grain, they where at the mercy of the sudden winds. Some would fall upon the hard rocks and would not sprout. Others fell on shallow earth and quickly sprouted. But without good rooting, withered and died from the heat of the sun. Others fell among weeds and became like the weeds around them, sprouting into a stunted and chocked out life, producing little to no seeds. But the majority had fallen upon the soft plowed earth that the farmer had prepared, and they grew straight and high and multiplied many times over.  
 
   I have heard many of whom are called preachers of the word, say that this parable’s meaning can be found in it’s comparison to how you live your life. Some seeds (souls) become stunted and sentenced to wither away into nothingness. Some grow among weeds (Evil) and mutate into something they are not. The strong and tall grain (good souls) wins the race of wholesomeness, ultimately to be reaped by God.  
 
 This simple and obvious interpretation insinuates that the grain that fell upon the in hospitable surfaces, where somehow inherently different from the other grains, so they where even before birth sentenced to death or a terribly disorientating life.  
 
 This terrible sentenced was passed before they even hit the ground. If this parable is to be compared with the life of man, then we must also consider the fact that all the grain was equal in pureness at the start, as they flowed through the farmers hand. It was not any fault of the grain if it fell onto baron and crowded earth. The farmers hand dealt out the seeds fate.  
 
   I now can see a much deeper meaning into this teaching… 
Our souls can not control where they land, to take root in this world. If it be wealth or poverty. Or among the good or the evil. It is the life giving breath of God like dandelion seeds ridding on the wind that leads us to the ground in which we are to sprout. In all of the teachings that we read of Gods mercy and forgiving nature, would he  forget the unfortunate beginnings of even a grain of seed? Would not another chance at life be the fairest of judgments, rather than condemnation?. Or perhaps the Lord like the wind carries the seeds of life to a planned curriculum in a carefully chosen place of learning.  
 
   God forgives all, for it is not our souls choice of which class room fate provides. I realize how easily it is for me to forgive the the little seed for growing into an unproductive adult when sowed among the weeds. I would even champion it’s right to be reseeded once again. 
 
   Can I forgive my brother as easily if he is sown among weeds? Why is this not as simple.  Among the well tended, life is easy, the fight for sunlight and nourishment is insured by the farmers hand. Not so for all that fall among the weeds. Who am I to judge he that which was given his or her place in life through the will and choice of God himself. 
 
   Am I to insinuate that God had made a mistake in his sowing. Even those among the good soil lay Foley to the easyness of their own place of life.  Among the grain that grows tall and strong the farmer will find many beautifully formed stalks that grew deformed and useless fruits.  
At harvest time, they will be revealed, judged and sorted into the silo of swine feed and bedding.
 
 
  As I watch the last of the floating seeds fall to earth among the meadow I wonder how many will be given the gift of life. I ponder the fate of the other seeds that will not sprout this time around. Perhaps the spark of life that dwells within the seed that doesn’t sprout, simply returns from whence it came. Once again to be placed within a new mothers womb, and to float among the breeze come next year.  
 
   This sounds more like the Grace that would be given at the hand of a God that is just and fair.  Or are we to believe that our fathers judgment would be liken too that of a power hungry Roman emperor, whom hands out judgments of death and torture from a his golden thrown. 
 
  I can not believe in a God that sits on a thrown of judgment. This ideology of God is nothing more than a propaganda painting on the wall of a 14th century building. Carefully designed to frighten people into submission to another mans self appointed authority.  Can a father earn the love and respect of his children at the end of a strap?  
  I realize that God can be found in the caring hand of the farmer as he prepares the earth for sowing. He is the soft breeze that brings us to our chosen place in life. Life is the gift of learning and God can be found in the crop of the field as well as among the brush of weeds. From theGnostic Scriptures, The Gospel of Thomas says… 
 
Jesus said, “If your leaders say to you, ‘Look, the (Father’s) kingdom is in the sky,’ then the birds of the sky will precede you. If they say to you, ‘It is in the sea,’ then the fish will precede you. Rather, the (Father’s) kingdom is within you and it is outside you. 
 
 
  I again notice my surroundings, and this stone chair in which I sit. Maybe it’s placement is not a fluke of nature, Maybe it is more, then it seems. A solitary chair for a solitary man. Placed and carved by the hand of God in his quiet and tranquil Meadow class room.  
 
   I look across the now darkened meadow as the sky turns into a star studded sphere.
Across the meadow sits a star. A star that appears to be sitting in a tree.  It shines a narrow path of light across the sleeping clover that rolls up the hill and touches my feet. and I begin to wonder. 
 
Gnostic Voyager