GOD'S GARDENS

There is an old song that has been a song of comfort for people for many years called, “In The Garden.” Those familiar with the song know the opening line goes, “I come to the garden alone.” The garden is the place where we meet God. I would like to consider today some of God’s Gardens.

The first of course would have to be the Garden of Eden. If you took some time to read Genesis 2:4-17, you would see the account of God creating this first garden. God who formed the universe,…this God who created everything with a word, ‘Let there be’…now gets down on His hands and knees, and carefully plants a garden for us! How great is His love for us! This garden was more magnificent than anything we could ever imagine. And, what was it that made it so magnificent? It was the very company of God Himself. At times we still catch a glimpse of Eden, don’t we? But, God no longer walks with us like He did with Adam and Eve. What happened? Death happened in three letters…sin.  Adam and Eve gave in to temptation and disobeyed their wonderful God.

So, what’s the remedy? How can our paradise, our beautiful garden be regained? How can we walk with God once more? We might find the answer in another of God’s gardens. It is a little different garden than the beautiful Garden of Eden. This garden is one He waters with His own blood filled sweat. It is the Garden of Gethsemane.

It was in the Garden of Gethsemane that paradise was regained. Here in the Garden of Gethsemane Jesus cried, "Father, if you are willing, take this cup [of wrath] from me; yet not my will, but yours be done."  It was here in in this garden Jesus submitted to become our death. And death in the ultimate spiritual sense is to be separated from God. The very instant Adam and Eve sinned, they died spiritually. Their relationship with God, the author and sustainer of life, was broken. Do you remember when you went to the garden of Gethsemane with Jesus? We have all been to the garden of Eden with Adam, and we’ve all lost that garden with Adam. Those who don’t know Jesus still live in paradise lost, and need desperately to come to the Garden of Gethsemane with Jesus!

But, there is another one of God’s gardens I would like to think about. It’s the Garden of My Heart. Our hearts are, or certainly should be, a garden for the King. Our hearts should be a garden for the King of kings. How does the King flourish in your heart? Does He walk with you in the cool of the day? Come, Lord, and help make my heart a garden in which You would love to dwell. Make my heart God’s Garden.

‘And He walks with me,
and He talks with me,
And He tells me I am His own,
And the joy we share
as we tarry there,
None other has ever known’.

Think about those words as you sing them. The first line of the chorus tells of the return to the Garden of Eden, for Adam and Eve walked and talked with God in that garden. And, if we have placed our trust in the Jesus of the Garden of Gethsemane, we can sing that He again of how He walks and talks with us. That garden brings to us the reality of the second line. Because, it was there that Jesus sweat drops of blood in anguish of what He was about to go through for us. Through His love and by His death He bought us…we are His. He tells me I am His own. And then finally, the last lines proclaim the unspeakable joy that is not only ours but also God’s…“for the joy we share (that’s the King and I) as we tarry there, none other has ever known.”

And you know I believe it’s true when it says none other has ever known this joy. For I will experience this unspeakable joy in a way that only I can, and you will experience this unspeakable joy in a way that only you can. And God will experience this unspeakable joy differently with every one of His children! Come to the garden.