In The Garden

One of my happiest places in life has always been the garden. Everywhere I've lived I've had a garden and even now, though our yard space is pretty small, I have a few flower beds and a tiny garden for vegetables. I love the fragrance of earthy soil, and the wonderful texture of rich, black dirt that molds into a mound in the palm of my hand. The thrill of dropping seeds carefully into a row, then covering them with a small hill made of freshly worked ground brings a smile to my face.

I love the process of taking a seedling, creating a hole, watering it, and stretching the roots out in the open crater, then pulling the soil around the base of the plant and patting it securely into the ground. The fun of watching the plant grow strong and push forth blossoms and stems and eventually abundant fruit, is beyond description.

"Now the Lord God had planted a garden in the east, in Eden; and there he put the man he had formed. And the Lord God made all kinds of trees grow out of the ground--trees that were pleasing to the eye and good for food. In the middle of the garden were the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. A river watering the garden flowed from Eden; from there it was separated into four headwaters. ..The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it," (Genesis 2:8-10, 15 NIV).

It is no wonder that humans enjoy farming. Our Father made us to love the earth. He created us to work in the garden and to care for it. I know there are people who don't really 'get' the thrill of working in the soil. I grew up with my farmer father and saw his love for the earth and the job of caring for God's green earth. He was a conservationist, literally. He worked for the Soil Conservation Service and his job was to plan out the planting design for fields, designed especially for preventing soil erosion. He promoted using terraces when no one really knew what they were. He implemented tiling fields, waterways' plantings and farming on the contour. Whenever I see the beautiful rows of crops encircling a hillside, I think of my daddy and my Heavenly Father.

For the same reason, I get teary-eyed when I see row crops going up and down the hills, or mounds of rich soil run off in the ditches after a heavy rain. Our earth is precious to God and precious to me. It breaks my heart to see how we earthlings have damaged so much of God's Creation.

Jesus sought solitude and solace in the gardens of His lifetime. God is still the Gardener and Jesus is the true vine. God cares for the branches (that's us) to help us be fruitful.  We are in the garden with Him. I like that image.

Spend some time in a garden today. Soak up the presence of Our Lord and Savior Who is there.