Tag: fiction

  • The Gardener, the Shepherd and the Hunter: a Garden

    The Gardener, the Shepherd and the Hunter: a Garden

    the Gardener, the Shepherd and the Hunter - a story by Roger Harned takes place in a garden, which at first looks like the garden of Eden

    Scene One:

    a Garden

    An illustration of times in life beyond the bounds of time and place

    The Gardener, the Shepherd and the Hunter

    Once upon a time there was a gardener, a shepherd and a hunter.

    I met a man who knew each of them (and many others), for he frequented the garden during his journeys through time.

    But before I tell you about these men from long ago, allow me to describe this garden seen by just a few men, women and even children during these countless years and times.


    To begin, you must close your eyes in order to look through a distant twilight upon a face of this place not visible to any who think we might see this extraordinary place by the light of this distant earth.

    For that is how I met his man who showed me the way to look into the vast darkness to see this paradise.

    Of course, if anyone wanted to look for a gardener,

    wouldn’t you first try to find the garden where he works?

    That’s what I did after I heard a Voice of the man who had met them all. Then he showed me where to look into the twilight of the night sky.

    Better, with your eyes closed to this world, he said.

    Do you have a picture of the garden where I can see this gardener, I asked?

    Imaginations of it by men and women paint many pictures of places not at all like this garden, he replied.

    You cannot allow even the most beautiful earthly place of your imagination to mirror this distant garden beyond the borders of time and place.

    Beyond …time… and place

    What do you mean that this garden is on another side of a border of time?

    (I thought is was a straightforward question about where I should look.)

    Have you ever been there … or met anyone else who has seen this garden?

    (Of course I hadn't.)
    
    And without saying anything and with my eyes still closed I could still see the man who spoke to me as he gently looked into the depths of my thought.

    So you would like to see this garden..? .. and have me show you how to get past your border of..

    .. The man was suddenly silent.

    I strained to see him with faint light passing through my eyelids as I imagined a beautiful garden filled with light and life. I imagined scrumptious fruit, the greenest of plants and purest of air.. a blue sky (of course).. Behind a moving mist somewhere between my eyelids and my wandering mind, I painted for myself a paradise with several people wandering about carelessly…

    … time … ?

    But which one was the Gardener, I wondered?

    Then as my mindless mist obscured my vision of this garden beyond the bounds of time and place, I realized that the man had just spoken to ME again.

    …time… ? (he had just said – his last word inviting me to follow him there)

    Do you see this … LINE …


    he asked?

    Yes.

    Where does it end?

    (With my eyes again closed tightly and staring into the distance both to the left and then the right, I could see NO END


    and the … LINE … just keep going beyond where I could see..)

    Can you see it’s BEGINNING?

    I nodded.. NO.

    Yet haven’t your READ the truth of a garden beyond this …LINE… drawn in …TIME…?


    How about the other END of the …LINE…?

    Now I thought briefly of the Revelation of Jesus Christ to John. A horrific scene of apocalypse began to unfold — a scene I had never wanted to look upon.

    The Garden

    And just as before when I had tried to glance back at the garden of Eden, the desired paradise with GOD, the voice of the man no longer spoke comfort into my spirit.

    I did not know then WHO the gardener was, but now I knew where to look …beyond the line of time and place…for the garden.


    from the Voice of Truth

    וְהָאָרֶץ הָיְתָה תֹהוּ וָבֹהוּ וְחֹשֶׁךְ עַל־פְּנֵי תְהוֹם וְרוּחַ אֱלֹהִים מְרַחֶפֶת עַל־פְּנֵי הַמָּֽיִם׃

    Bereishit (Genesis) 1 :: Westminster Leningrad Codex (WLC)

    גַּן

    CLICK HERE for MORE Original truth of the garden: Strong’s H1588 – gan

    • garden, enclosure; גַּן gan, gan; from H1598; a garden (as fenced):—garden.

    The LORD God planted a garden H1588 toward the east, in Eden; and there He placed the man whom He had formed..

    Out of the ground the LORD God caused every tree to grow that is pleasing to the sight and good for food; the tree of life was also in the midst of the garden H1588, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

    Then the LORD God took the man and put him in the Garden H1588 of Eden to cultivate it and tend it.

    Genesis 2:15 NASB20
    the Gardener, the Shepherd and the Hunter - a story by Roger Harned

    NEXT:

    Scene Two: a gardener near the beginning

    (more…)
  • INTRO to our Story of The Gardener, the Shepherd and the Hunter

    INTRO to our Story of The Gardener, the Shepherd and the Hunter

    INTRODUCTION: Once upon a time...

    I love a story that begins, Once upon a time, don’t you?

    Your parents may have used different names for stories like this:

    • Fairy Tales, Fables, Adventures, Fantasies, Science fiction. (I think Disney has a ‘LAND‘ for every one of them.)
    • Romances… (You know, “.. AND THEY LIVED HAPPILY EVER AFTER.”)
    • SuperHERO stories, cartoons, comics, games, and movies.

    As a parent if I were to tell you our secret about any Once upon a timeSTORY, then I must confess that even though we call them CHILDREN’S STORIES, almost EVERY parent loves these stories too.

    Once upon a timeSTORIES are FICTION.

    That is to say, they are NOT TRUE. And even some grown-ups forget that.

    BUT.. these stories may tell an important truth to us.

    ANY STORY may include an illustration of times in life beyond the bounds of time and place – a picture of some person at some time in some place that we cannot see, hear or touch.

    These stories may have men or women, boys or girls..

    sometimes even animals we might like to be like.. or must be careful not to be..

    or worse yet, those people, creatures and things we must stay away from altogether.

    HEROES or VILLAINS (good or bad) may have been like someone we know (or don’t want to know). They may be just like real people who lived ‘once upon a time’ who we have never met.

    THIS ‘once upon a time’ story, although it is FICTION, also includes some NON-FICTION characters at times – men and women who teach us good things for these times from their REAL lives a time long ago.. or even a time after any of us can imagine.


    Parables, Allegories, Myths and more

    As part of my introduction to The Gardener, the Shepherd and the Hunter my intent is not to instruct you in literature, but rather to provoke additional thought about Scripture and my serial story which follows. - Roger Harned

    a Parable

    You have read or heard many parables, especially those told by JESUS, written down for our instruction in the Gospels of the Bible.

    • DID JESUS REALLY SEE THESE THINGS HAPPEN?
      • NO, I think. (I cannot be certain.)
    • DO THE PARABLES OF JESUS illustrate TRUTH?
      • YES, Jesus paints pictures in His Words of absolute inviolable truths.
    I will open my mouth in a parable;
    I will tell riddles of old,
    Which we have heard and known,
    And our fathers have told us.
    We will not conceal them from their children,
    But we will tell the generation to come the praises of the LORD,
    And His power and His wondrous works that He has done. 

    CLICK HERE FOR ALL of Psalm 78 A contemplative, moral instructive song of Asaph.
    Listen, my people, to my instruction;
    Incline your ears to the words of my mouth.

    an Allegory

    • a story, play, picture, etc. in which each character or event is a symbol representing an idea or a quality, such as truth, evil, death, etc.
      • source: the Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary

    Some Bible Stories are allegories.

    The Holy Bible also contains fictional truths told as allegories in addition to many oral (or verbal) histories — each told, then later recorded in writing, as accounts of TRUE history, i.e. non-fiction.

    I believe that Moses' creation narrative may be an allegory -- a most accurate illustration of the truths of God and creation, good and evil; 
    a screenshot outside of time (to update his picture) of THAT WHICH NO MAN can see of life (eternal or otherwise) and death.

    Theologians have debated such truths of the Bible for millennia; but we must not dismiss God’s Truth by any misconception of man which debates the literal and symbolic of any of God’s Scripture. – RH

    Your COMMENT is welcome about God, Creation, Moses, JESUS or the Bible.

    Roger@TalkofJESUS.com
    The Gardener, the Shepherd and the Hunter

    The story I introduce here today is neither parable or allegory, but quotes Biblical truth.

    However, if you would like to sample a classic allegory from English literature, check out the best-loved Christian allegory of all time:

    The Pilgrim's Progress of John Bunyan

    CLICK HERE to READ this classic English allegory,

    “The Pilgrim’s Progress”


    Myths and Fables

    • myth
    • a story from ancient times, especially one that was told to explain natural events or to describe the early history of a people; this type of story; SYNONYM legend
      • ancient Greek myths
      • a creation myth (= that explains how the world began)
      • the heroes of myth and legend
        • source: the Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary
    Permit me just one comment on this widely accepted definition of myth:  
    
    Ancient Greek, Roman and eastern religion myths include gods (idols), legendary heroes (often gods or early icons of the faith), and a creation myth which includes one or more of the above. 
    
    Many will attempt to dismiss ALL explanations of creation as false BECAUSE THESE ARE 'CREATION MYTHS;' however one explanation of creation must be TRUE (for the heavens and earth exist). 

    The stories of the LORD GOD and creation describe life beyond the bounds of time and place;

    therefore creatures that we are, man can neither prove nor refute the eternal and immeasurable beyond this brief mortal life.

    Roger@TalkofJESUS.com
    • fables
    • a fictitious narrative or statement: such as
      • a legendary story of supernatural happenings
      • a narration intended to enforce a useful truth
        • especially : one in which animals speak and act like human beings
      • FALSEHOOD, LIE
      • source: Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary,

    Fantasies

    Many will know of or have read a famous Christian fantasy:

    visit Narnia.com

    C.S. Lewis also tells a favorite of mine appropriate for teens and especially adults, a story about two devils: Screwtape and his bumbling apprentice, Wormwood.

    C.S. Lewis delves into moral questions about good v. evil, temptation, repentance and grace. - source:

    A TIMELESS CLASSIC ON ‘HELL’S LATEST NOVELTIES AND HEAVEN’S UNANSWERABLE ANSWER’. 


    our Story of Three Characters

    It's up to you to solve the mystery of each to learn who they are.
    The Gardener the Shepherd and the Hunter - Introduction to a story by Roger Harned

    The Gardener, the Shepherd and the Hunter

    NEXT: ACT 1: The Gardener


  • A Temporary Throne – 48

    A Temporary Throne – 48

    CHAPTER 48

    As I lay in the darkness of this unknown place I cried out, “LORD! Jesus, Lord save me!”

    What is this place? I thought again. Is it a grave? A pit? Hell, even? (No, it cannot be hell, I thought.) But how horrid the earthy place to which I was not accustomed and could not discern. I cried out-loud once more:

    LORD, save me!

    Finally, Light penetrated the deep darkness and fear of this place and washed over my unfamiliar surroundings with comfort, hope and a tangible love – yes, love was what I now felt surround me – love, not death.

    “Lord,” I exclaimed in relieve joy, “thank you.”

    We were definitely not in Heaven. We were in a place on the earth; but it was okay, the LORD was with me.

    “Lord, what has happened?”

    I waited for the LORD to answer. I had peace in this place where moments ago I trembled in overwhelming fear. I was in the presence of the Lord once more, surrounded by His abundant love and I waited for what the LORD would have me do.

    To be continued…

    A Temporary Throne is an original work of Roger Harned,
    © Copyright 2014, All Rights Reserved by the author.

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