I love my garden. The colors and smells, pulling weeds and removing old leaves. The hours of uninterrupted self-reflection and prayer working in the garden allows me. But what I enjoy most is watching as God’s beauty unfolds.
I would like to believe my garden grows simply because I will it to. Yet, if that was true all my seeds would germinate, the trees would always bear fruit and the aphids and leaf miners would be so afraid they would not enter. Gardening takes hard work and waiting patiently as a seed becomes a seedling, which with time a flower emerges and ultimately becomes the fruit.
This is accompanied by pulling out weeds and pruning the plants to foster more growth. You can’t just plant a garden and leave it alone to produce fruit on its own, there are ants to fight as they try to make their home in the middle of your bed. Setting up barriers using eggshells to keep the snail and slugs away. Not to mention the daily ongoing war between me and the weeds who are always trying to retake fertile ground.
Yet, watching fellow gardeners from all over the world on youtube fighting the same fight makes me feel that I can overcome it all. And as much as I like watching youtube and learning from those who came before me, I know God is the true Master Gardner, who teaches us all.
The Master’s Plan
“And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth and it was so.” -Genesis 1:11
“And the Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden, and there he put the man whom he had formed.” – Genesis 2:8
In preparing a place for his man to live, He didn’t build a town, He built a garden which man was “to tend and watch over.” Yes, God planted a garden!
The Master’s Gift
After all the work was done, clearing the ground, deciding which plants would do well on the hill and which would grow best by the river. He gives his garden to his man to watch over and tend.
“And the Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to tend and guard and keep it.” –Genesis 2:15
Can you imagine, God and man walking together, planning each planting and enjoying each harvest?
Invite God into your garden, ask his advice on all things great and small and as you do, watch and enjoy the fruit that will begin to grow in your garden!