After Death, Paradise!

One of the thieves crucified with Jesus asked Jesus to remember him. In so doing, the thief confessed that Jesus was both a king and would soon inherit a kingdom. To this strange confession Jesus replied, "Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise" (Luke 23:43). What and where is this Paradise?

Early church fathers used Paradise with a variety of meanings. Since the word itself refers to a beautiful garden, most of these exegetes understood it to refer to the Garden of Eden (Gen. 2-3). Since Adam and Eve were driven from the Garden, they pointed to the work of Christ, the new Adam who has regained it for believers.

Yet death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those whose sinning was not like the transgression of Adam, who was a type of the one who was to come. But the free gift is not like the trespass. For if many died through one man's trespass, much more have the grace of God and the free gift by the grace of that one man Jesus Christ abounded for many. And the free gift is not like the result of that one man's sin. For the judgment following one trespass brought condemnation, but the free gift following many trespasses brought justification. —Rom. 5:14-16 ESV

Thus it is written, "The first man Adam became a living being"; the last Adam became a life-giving spirit. But it is not the spiritual that is first but the natural, and then the spiritual. The first man was from the earth, a man of dust; the second man is from heaven. As was the man of dust, so also are those who are of the dust, and as is the man of heaven, so also are those who are of heaven. - 1Cr 15:45-48 ESV

The Apostle Paul spoke obliquely about himself being caught up to Paradise. He called it the third heaven.

I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago was caught up to the third heaven--whether in the body or out of the body I do not know, God knows. And I know that this man was caught up into paradise--whether in the body or out of the body I do not know, God knows-- - 2Cr 12:2-3 ESV

In the light of this the teachers of the church claimed that Paradise has once again become accessible. In his Catchesis lectures Cyril explained to the newly baptized:

"When therefore thou renouncest satan, utterly breaking all thy covenant with him, that ancient league with hell, there is opened to thee the paradise of God, which He planted towards the east, whence for his transgression our first father was banished . . ." (Catechesis XIX.9)

Garden of Eden - Wonder of Creation 

What a beautiful picture, one among many presented to us in Holy Scripture. It is my favorite. I love thinking about what awaits us as we move from this life to the next. I love the thought of the Garden of Eden, a word that in Hebrew refers to delight and pleasure. The prophet comforts us all in this way:

For the LORD comforts Zion; he comforts all her waste places and makes her wilderness like Eden, her desert like the garden of the LORD; joy and gladness will be found in her, thanksgiving and the voice of song. - Isa 51:3 ESV

The Eden Alternative To Nursing Homes

Dr. Bill Thomas, a physician specializing in geriatrics, is a crusader determined to revolutionize nursing home care. The Harvard graduate and father of five has so far "Edenized" about 300 nursing homes in the United States and a handful in Australia and Europe. He was recently interviewed by Dale Bell of Houston PBS about The Eden Alternative.

I'll put the American nursing home on the critical list. It's not going to make it. It's a relic. It's a left-over vestige of a factory, assembly-line approach to care that is just not going to meet the needs of elders in the 21st century. And in fact, I'll do everything that I can to see that, as we move forward, nursing homes cease to exist.

When asked what The Eden Alternative is, Dr. Thomas replied,

The nursing home takes good, good, loving, caring people and plugs them into an institutional factory-like arrangement. And it's no good. So what I want is an alternative to the nursing home, an alternative to the institution. And the best alternative I can think of is a garden. I believe that every elder should have a chance to live in a garden. I believe that, when we make a place that's worthy of our elders, we make a place that enriches all of our lives, caregiver, family member and elder alike. So the answer the Eden Alternative provides is a reinterpretation of the environment elders live in, from an institution to a garden. That's why we call it the Eden Alternative. 

What are the other components, what are the other criteria of the Eden Alternative?
Number one, the organization begins to treat the staff they way they want the staff to treat the elders. Very important. Long-term care has a bad history of treating its staff one way, not so nice, and expecting the staff to treat the elders a different way. 

Number two, the organization brings decision making back to the elders and to the people around the elders, so that they have a voice in their daily routine and their life. Crucial, crucial to re-injecting meaning into peoples' lives. 

Third, they've taken real steps to make the place where people live rich in plants and animals and children. I want the people to be confused when they walk through the door. What kind of place is this? I mean, there's kids running around and playing and there's dogs and there's cats and there's birds, and there's gardens and plants and ... I want them to be confused. This can't be a nursing home. Right. It's an alternative to the nursing home. 

And finally, there has to be a commitment to ongoing growth. We believe in the Eden Alternative that even the frailest, most demented, most feeble elder can grow. And that the young person who maybe has a difficult home life or is living on the edge of poverty, they can grow. That the organization commits itself to human growth. And those words, human growth, nursing home, they've never gone together before and with Eden Alternative they can.

Hey, I want to spend my final years in one of Dr. Thomas' Eden Alternative homes. Sounds so much better than many, many of the nursing homes I've visited over the years. I found one Eden certified home in Celina, TX., very near to where my son lives. I certainly will want to check it out if I ever need this kind of living arrangements.

Of course, if at all possible, I do indeed want to remain in my own home or at least in the home of children who love me and want to care for me. I absolutely reject the very thought of living in some of the institutionalized nursing homes I've known over the years.

The Eden Alternative is an international not-for-profit organization founded by Dr. Thomas and dedicated to transforming care environments into habitats for human beings that promote quality of life for all involved.It is a powerful tool for inspiring well-being for Elders and those who collaborate with them as Care Partners.

Here are a few more Bible verses to encourage us all even more: 

Upon you I have leaned from before my birth; you are he who took me from my mother's womb. My praise is continually of you. I have been as a portent to many, but you are my strong refuge. My mouth is filled with your praise, and with your glory all the day. Do not cast me off in the time of old age; forsake me not when my strength is spent. - Psalms 71:7-9 ESV

Listen to your father who gave you life, and do not despise your mother when she is old. - Prov. 23:22 ESV

"Listen to me, O house of Jacob, all the remnant of the house of Israel, who have been borne by me from before your birth, carried from the womb; even to your old age I am he, and to gray hairs I will carry you. I have made, and I will bear; I will carry and will save." - Isa 46:3-4 ESV

 

 

Family Matters

For Sylvia and me this has been another family summer. We drove from Texas to Illinois, accompanied by our daughter Cheryl Lee, to a family reunion on Sylvia's side of the family. My son Nathan flew in to join us for the weekend. Cousins from Alaska to Texas, Nebraska to New York and many states in between, gathered to link together and share memories. Below is an old photo of Grandma and Grandpa and their sons and daughters. All the cousins can trace themselves back to this old picture through their parents or grandparents.

As you can see, this photo dates back to the beginning of the 20th century, to a time when taking a picture was a big deal. Notice how the family members have on their best clothes, the girls in their pretty dresses, the boys in their knickers, white shirts and ties. One can just imagine the big box camera attached to a sturdy wood tripod with the photographer centering upon the front door of the porch and saying, "Everybody look my way. Hold it. Hold it. Got it!" I don't think anyone ever smiled for a photo in those days. It was too serious an event.

This and similar photos were spread out on tables for all the cousins to see. "Now let's see," John said, pointing to the old picture, "This is my dad and that is your mom."

Some of us are now writing back and forth by email, wondering how we can preserve that brief weekend together in our memories. We've started a family website on My Heritage.com. We hope to fill out the birthday, wedding and funeral dates, as well as add more photos.

Family matters. Maintaining ties to our families is a big deal. This was confirmed in our family on that weekend. God's Word emphasizes this also. Again and again we read about who was the father of whom and who married whom. The whole long, complex history of our families is foretold in the opening chapters as the LORD sends Adam and Eve out from the garden of Eden (Genesis 2:1-3:24).

They would no longer be allowed to eat from the tree of life and live forever. They made a fatal choice to disobey the command not to eat the forbidden fruit. As a result they became aware of evil, the dark contrast to the bright, good life they had known prior to their sin. A curse would now be upon the very earth from which they had come. In addition to the plants that provide food, they would have to battle thorns and thistles.

They would still have children. That promise was not removed. But all the daughters of Eve would have pain multiplied in the wondrous act. And the battle of the sexes was about to begin.

As we gathered this summer, I became aware again that our family shares this history. We smiled and laughed, recalled childhood events and told stories about family events. But beneath it are also painful memories of divorce, sickness, suffering, conflict and even murder. It was all there, but we did our best to not focus on these matters. This was meant to be a happy time

One other thing was there—or should I say One other person was there? Most of us cousins share a faith that can be traced all the way back to those fateful events in the garden when the LORD spoke a curse upon the deceiving serpent and a promise to all the offspring of Adam and Eve.

I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel"(Genesis 3:15). 

That promise was fulfilled when Jesus of Nazareth, offspring of the virgin Mary, stepped into the family of man, to take to himself the curse we all yet bear. As a tree was involved in the story of our sickness and death, so also a tree was involved in our healing. The Apostle Peter puts it this way:

"He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed" (1 Peter 2:21-25).

Family matters, not only to us, but especially to our Father in heaven. Because He was willing to sacrifice His Son, we look forward to celebrating all the good things about our family in the glory that awaits in the renewal of all things (1 Corinthians 2:7-10).