In My Father's House are Many Irish Forests

Tonight, I am reminded of the paraphrasing of John 14:1-3 I recited to our driver and friend, Sean, as he drove us through the beautiful country of Ireland, en route to the Irish sea:


"Let not your heart be troubled:
Ye believe in God, believe also in me.
In my Father's house are many Irish Forests:
If it were not so, I would have told you.
I go to prepare a place for you
And if I go and prepare a place for you,
I will come again, and receive you unto myself;
That where I am, there ye may be also."


These words tumbled out of my mouth without a thought as we passed mile after mile of the lush Irish hillside. This, I thought, is what The Garden of Eden must have looked like. This, I thought, is precisely the kind of landscape that God Almighty would create for us to walk and talk with Him.