God's Garden

May 26, 2009

Sunday morning I was watering our garden and flowers before church and as I was doing this I began to think about all the elements in the garden. There are so many answers to life’s questions in the simplest of things.

As I watered I thought about how I was watering things and what my reasoning was behind my methods. Why did I water some things and not others? Why did I use gentle pressure with the hose on some things and use full force elsewhere? I thought about how God deals with us and I wondered if many of his motives behind his methods were similar.

I looked at the various plants that I had placed around the house and the Lord began to speak to me about people as compared to certain plantings. There was so much there right in front of me.

Some plants were scrawny with just a few leaves; they had just been planted and needed extra attention. Those I watered gently. Some plants were sturdy but had been gnarled by the recent cold snap; I also watered them with extra care. There were those trapped under the ground so I had to use a forceful spray to penetrate the hardened soil to allow the water to reach them. They needed to be softened, nourished and awakened from their dormant sleep.

I could see every phase of my life in the canvas of my garden. There was so much there I don’t think I can put it all into words. Some plants were full of blooms and in others I could see the potential to be full of blooms. I have this wisteria plant that has been growing for some time but has never bloomed.

It made me think of the fig tree in Mark 11; Jesus cursed it and caused it to wither because it didn’t bear fruit. My wisteria isn’t doing what it was meant to do and sometimes we as people don’t do what we are meant to do so God prunes us as I will do to my plant. It has all these tendrils reaching out every which way that are unproductive and could become a menis if they are allowed to continue.

Sometimes we don’t understand why things happen in our lives but the Gardener is in control and he prunes us and waters us with different pressures to cause us to flourish and produce glory for him.

Sometimes like the plants that are established in my landscaping, the more mature don’t need constant watering. These plants have been through several seasons and have learned how to trust the Gardener for what they need, they have learned to dig deep into the soil and survive the heat of summer and the bitter cold of winter.

I am so amazed at what creation will tell us about the character of our Creator God and his ways if we will just take time to observe it. We are all at different seasons and growth cycles in our walk with the Master Gardener and there will be times where we are watered well every day or denied water or pruned or allowed to grow and expand all for his glory.

He is the one who controls it all and it is for his glory and he holds it all together ...we are just different varieties, planted in a community plot of land and our Gardener looks after each one of us weeding out those things that are detrimental.

There are several scriptures that I came across this morning in my study of God’s garden such as Genesis 2:8, Job 8:8-19, Song of Solomon 4:12, 16, Isaiah 5:7, 51:3, 58:11, and 61:3, 11, and Jeremiah 31:12. There are many other places in the bible where a garden is mentioned but the following one caught my attention and I found it very appropriate as I thought about it…

John 19: 41(NIV) “At the place where Jesus was crucified, there was a garden, and in the garden a new tomb, in which no one had ever been laid.” Jesus was laid to rest and resurrected from the midst of a garden…how beautiful, how appropriate, how loving and thoughtful is our God! Glory to his name!