Fallen?

I heard it again the other day.

Over the years, I have taken this sentiment for granted, never examining it too closely, assuming that it was extant somewhere in sacred quotedom.

But, now I was curious, and try as I might I couldn’t track it back to any branch of Holy Writ.

I found quotes in the Old and New Testaments of the Bible referring to fallen angels (Isaiah 14:12; Revelation 12:4) Cain’s fallen countenance (Genesis 4:6;), the man in Leviticus (13:40) whose hair is fallen off his head. Then there was Dagon who fell upon his face to the earth before the ark of the Lord (1 Samuel 5:3), and of course, “How have the mighty fallen…” (2 Samuel 1:19).

I checked Hindu, Islamic and Buddhist texts and couldn’t find it in those materials either.

As far as I can tell, there is no direct reference anywhere, in any tradition, to a fallen world.  Apparently, God didn’t say it and neither did any of His scriptwriters.  

What I do see, no research required, are a lot of humans stumbling around out there, falling over themselves and one another – myself included.

Recently, I attended a performance by an artist that featured gruesome images of maimed and desecrated human remains.  While these images were onscreen, he, standing naked in front of the screen, called out to some passersby to come in and join the audience.  This was not so remarkable, why not?  But, what stunned me was that they very obviously had a small child with them.

Later, when I asked him about it, he said that he thought it would be appropriate if not obligatory to show these images to a child because they were the “truth”, and we must show our children the “truth”.

Really?  Whose truth?

Furthermore, if we are all telepathically linked, unique expressions of one consciousness, as I believe we are, what makes anyone think that a child is not already intimately connected with the truth?

Who are we to bring them up to speed?

More likely it is the adults, whose pineal glands, or “spiritual enlightenment” glands, have been turned to stone through stress, materialism, rationalism, lack of sunlight, refined foods, synthetic hormones and passive or intentional exposure to toxic substances, who need intensive intervention.

A child left to be a child, loved, nurtured, and unharmed either psychologically, physically or spiritually, looks into the world in wonder and lives each moment fully with joy and enthusiasm.

This is not to say that bad things do not happen, but they do not happen because we are living in a fallen world.  They happen because we choose to view the world and ourselves as fallen and then fulfill the prophecy.

Isn’t our cry for peace due in part to the fact that we never want our children, or anyone, to have to see these things again?

If we were to put our adult images and conceits aside and look into the world through a child’s eyes, what we would see is the exquisite and generous gift that creation is.

We would see a risen world.

We would see love.

Focus on love, choose to see only love, speak and act only from love, because…

Love is all that matters!

Image:
Pablo Picasso
1901
Oil on Canvas
73 x 54 cm
National Gallery, London, UK