Journey Back to Eden.pdf - St Mark Coptic Orthodox Church Chicago

A TIME OF SIGNS: CAELUM ET TERRA 85Abraham, “Look up into the night sky and count the stars, if you can.Just so shall your descendants be” (cf. Genesis 15:5). So there I was sitting,looking up at the night sky, knowing how impossible it is inthe desert night to count the stars. And even while I was feeling thespecial poignancy of not having children, I suddenly realized thatthese children all around me are not only children of Abraham, butthey are also mine as well. For I have instructed them in faith, andI have given them tonight a greater realization of their own religion,their own spirituality. I have placed them confidently in thepresence of God.I thought of the second part of God’s injunction to Abraham,to try to count the sands on the shore. I was sitting on the sandbank of a little pond, and it was just as impossible to number thosegrains of sand. But just as Abraham was promised numerous descendants,I realized that so also would my descendants be if I amfaithful in proclaiming God’s word.At length I roused the children and took them back to themonastery where I delivered them to their families and theirguardians.I returned quietly to my cell, and there at my door was a gift!The monks had not forgotten, apparently, that this is my ChristmasEve! Somehow, they had found a Christmas tree, an awfully scragglyone, to be sure, but a Christmas tree of any sort in the middleof the desert is almost a miracle. It is some kind of evergreen, andon it they pinned little stars made of paper, all of them white, obviouslysigns of the Christmas star.For me, they are also reminders of the stars I had just seen in thedesert sky, and the promise that was given to me through Abraham.