You wake up and find yourself sitting on the ground next to a kindly looking man smiling down at you. “Welcome,” he says, “I have something I’d like you to do for me.” Not knowing what to say you walk along with him. You walk through the lanes of a vast estate filled with beautiful flowers, trees and shrubs. Growing there is produce of every variety. He notices you looking longingly and invites you to have some. The sensation is no disappointment–everything you taste is excellent. The conversation is excellent as well. The man answers your every question, seeming to enjoy the time just as much as you.<\/p>\n
Finally the man says that this all belongs to him but would like to have someone to watch over the place for him. “You will have full autonomy,” he says. “You may care for this place and do with it as you wish. Change whatever you like–no restrictions. I ask only two things of you. The first is that I would like to be able to walk through the grounds and talk with you each evening. I do so enjoy walking and talking with you.” You smile, “Of course, the feeling is mutual. What is the second thing?” He looks down the lane and says, “Come this way, I will show you.”<\/p>\n
After a while you top a little hill and find before you a small shelter. On a pedestal in the middle of the shelter is a ornate box. He looks at you sincerely and says, “This is special to me and I want it to stay safe. I ask that this remain here, untouched for as long as you are steward of my estate. That is all.” You look around stunned. That’s all? You get full authority over everything and all that is asked in return is an evening stroll and to leave alone one little box. “Your generosity is staggering. Is there nothing else?” <\/p>\n
“No. All is yours to do with as you will. All here are yours to command. Nothing is withheld except this one thing that I keep for myself.” There is no deception in him, only a pleasant radiance–a humble soul.<\/p>\n
Is this a good deal? Is it unfair to provide everything but to withhold one thing? This is the precise offer God gave to man in the Garden of Eden.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
You wake up and find yourself sitting on the ground next to a kindly looking man smiling down at you. “Welcome,” he says, “I have something I’d like you to do for me.” Not knowing what to say you walk along with him. You walk through the lanes of a vast estate filled with beautiful […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/marklandbenson.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/152"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/marklandbenson.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/marklandbenson.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marklandbenson.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marklandbenson.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=152"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/marklandbenson.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/152\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":155,"href":"https:\/\/marklandbenson.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/152\/revisions\/155"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/marklandbenson.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=152"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marklandbenson.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=152"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marklandbenson.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=152"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}