Religion of the Garden Variety – Part III

The gardener certainly knows the old adage, “Patience is a virtue.”  As the cycle of seasons turn, the gardener must simply wait.  If a natural disaster strikes, he waits to assess its ultimate effect upon the crops.  Once his work of preparing the soil, seeding and planting is done, he waits to see what the crop will be.  After the harvest has been gathered, he waits to determine his profit and pay his year-old bills.  Gardening builds patience.

Gardens easily lend themselves to solitude and meditation.  Imagine a peaceful stroll in a beautiful flower garden.  Allow your nostrils to fill with various pleasant aromas of different flowers.  Think about majesty of Almighty God in creating so many types of petals, blossoms and plants.  Stop and feel the rich texture of these flowers.  Consider what is needed for its care.  Listen for the symphony of nature – birds, crickets, bees, running water, etc.  The hymn writer envisions such a setting in that immortal song, “In the Garden.”  In these special and sacred places, one has a particular chance to commune with the Creator of the ends of the earth.  There, one can blot out the distractions of the world.  In a garden, you can gain a new perspective on life.  You can listen more clearly than you could in the hustle and bustle of daily busyness.  Gardens are places of growth and renewal; spiritual, personal and physical.  Next, I relate the gifts of a garden to the process and growth of the Christian journey.

As you read the following descriptions of the phenomena of gardening, apply these activities to the challenge of growing in the image and character of the Lord Jesus Christ.  The quest to mature as a disciple of the Lord closely resembles the many mysterious and majestic activities of a garden.  In fact, gardens factor significantly into the biblical narrative.  The fall of humankind occurs in the Garden of Eden.  The Lord Jesus Christ had the daily habit of rising early in the morning and praying in a garden adjacent to the Mount of Olives.  In the garden of Gethsemane, the Lord totally accepts his eternal destiny.  Thereby, he receives the divine power to fulfill his earthly purpose.  Gardens demonstrate the polar opposites of darkness and light, summer and winter and death and life. 

Gardens absorb everything, particularly those things that we characterize as “waste.”  Through the process of decomposition, gardens manufacture minerals out of ashes, manure, and compost (anything to be discarded that has not been cooked).  In the spiritual garden of discipleship development, God uses all of our experiences to remake us into His likeness.  God does not waste time!  Everything that we have ever done can inform who we become.  As we offer our hurts and wounds to Almighty God, He, like the great Potter that He is, reconfigures us.

Preparation is critical to successful planting, weeding and harvesting in a garden.  There must be enough fertilizer to neutralize the acidity in the soil.  If a gardener fails to prepare the soil properly, then his yield will suffer.  Likewise in the spiritual garden of life, it is difficult to grow if we insist upon holding onto past struggles and betrayals.  Bitterness and resentment comprise an extreme level of acidity of mind and heart.  Therefore, it will not be possible to grow fruit of the Holy Spirit if one has not prepared for progress in spiritual matters.

Seed selection significantly determines yield.  Good seeds last two to four years.  It helps the gardener to test his seed selection for germination.  If he takes ten seeds; puts them on a damp paper towel; and places them in the dark for a while, then the number that sprout will establish the potential ratio of his yield.  If less then half sprout, then he reasonably concludes that he has a bad seed.  In the spiritual realm, we test the ideas of our leaders and authors.  If they do not correlate with scripture and historic faith, then we can discard them.  They will not result in our spiritual growth.

A gardener must give particular detail to planting the seeds.  Some seeds require the spacing of two to four inches; others necessitate four to twelve inches.  Failure to address proper spacing between seeds will ultimately hinder the full growth of the plants that produce the harvest of flowers, fruit and vegetables.  Additionally, a farmer must utilize a sufficient quantity of seeds to yield a bountiful harvest.  “He that soweth sparingly shall also reap sparingly.  He that soweth bountifully shall reap bountifully.”