Welcome to my new blog series, Meeting God in the Garden. For the next six weeks, I hope to inspire you with the spiritual lessons I’ve learned in the past 25+ years of gardening.
Listen to this as a podcast episode HERE.
First, let’s take a virtual stroll through my gardens.
Butterfly garden
Rock garden
Iris bed
My raised beds for veggies, herbs, and flowers
Don’t let these photos fool you. Each photo was taken when the gardens met one or more of these conditions:
- at their prime flowering or production
- recently weeded and dead-headed
- well-watered (not in the dog days of August)
- properly fertilized
- not pest-damaged
It takes a LOT OF WORK to help my gardens look their best. It requires lots of learning, patience, and energy to have healthy, productive gardens.
Yet, the reason gardening is my favorite hobby can be summed up in this quote:
A Pull Toward Eden in the Garden
When I’m working in my gardens, I feel a pull toward Eden. I sense the unlocking of a deep code within my core, a strand of DNA passed down through thousands of generations, all the way from Eve. I can only imagine her pure joy in that perfect garden. Her great pleasure in exploring its beauty and depth. Her wonder at God’s handiwork and her satisfaction in caring for his creation.
In my garden I feel a pull toward Eden and a pull toward heaven. #gardening Click To TweetThe garden is where Eve first met God. And I meet Him there too, every time I pull a weed, pick a tomato, or deadhead a spent flower. Even in my transient, flawed garden which is only a faint shadow of Eden, I sense God’s presence.
In the garden, I learn about His provision, timing, grace, and glory. I press on through gardening challenges, wanting the rewards of the harvest. I long for a day when no pests and diseases threaten, when hail won’t damage, heat won’t wither, and torrents won’t flood. In my gardens, I feel a pull toward heaven. I truly enjoy meeting God in the garden and I hope you do as well.
Questions for reflection:
How does gardening, or simply being in a garden, help you feel closer to God?
Do you garden? If so, what do you enjoy most? If not, why not?
What gardening questions do you have? I’ll do my best to answer them!
Read my first guest interview in this blog series.
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