Garnet

 

Can eyes foresee what tattered lives bespeak?

Can flesh give some of itself unto life?

Or is our mind illumined by what's bleak

And beings marred and with corruption rife?

 

We see Noah light his path with Garnet

A decent man with his family saved

Yet what came out of the maritime pit

Was same broken humanity depraved

 

As in Adam we all enter death’s barque

So like him through one man we'll all be saved

One who embarked on Messianic Arc

Defeated death with life inside the grave

 

The one came from heaven and treasured Earth

That those of Earth could seek the kingdom first

 

 

[Mt. 6:19-23] Can people see what the lives of the poor and downtrodden evidence? Also, can our eyes foresee what the lives of the poor prophecy about us and our culture if they remain unnoticed and not helped?

 

Can we, through our flesh save another? If we’re all starving and I give of my flesh to be eaten, am I really sustaining a life? Jesus asked a similar question and repulsed quite a lot of people. To eat our flesh and to drink our blood is not life, but death. 

 

Unfortunately, we are blind to the poor and downtrodden and our flesh is mortal. We do not have life on the inside. We are the walking dead. 

 

One of the only things I was able to find about garnet is that tradition holds it is a stone Noah used to illuminate the ark while on the water. 

 

Noah and his family went into a boat for salvation, but came out a still depraved group of people. It didn’t take long for them to exhibit that depravity and create a terrible world. This is why I use the word “pit,” as it not only indicates a literal pit, but it is a word often used as a name for hell. Evil was in Noah and continued after the flood. What came out of the ark was evil.

 

This is a clear reference to Romans. Through Adam and through Christ we inherit curses and blessings. We all enter the same “ship” (or barque) of death. The ship imagery here is reminiscent of the ancient mythology of the passage to the netherworld where you have to pay the toll. 

 

“Arc” here has two meanings, one talking about the arc or path of Christ’s life, and the other is a reference back to Noah’s ark. Here we see that Jesus, unlike Noah, exited the pit not depraved, but perfect. He defeated death with his life and exited glorified. It is through this salvation that we have true salvation and hope. Here garnet is also significant because garnet did have some early connections to Christ’s blood because of its deep red color. So like Noah illuminated the ark with garnet, Christ illuminated the tomb with his blood as it provided life and resurrection, and now provides the same for us. 

 

With this great salvation we have we have through Christ we should seek the Kingdom first.