The Gardens of God

The story of our relationship with the Divine begins in a garden, planted by God, teaming with life; the tree of the knowledge of good and evil at its center. God walked with us there, searched for us there, longed to be with us there. And the story of the power of God's love for us--a love stronger even than death--begins again in yet another garden; the resurrected Jesus is mistaken for the very gardener himself. And our story ultimately ends in a garden with the creation of a new heaven and a new earth, with a tree of life at its center and the water of life running through it. The garden is the place where we learn to cultivate the gospel; where we learn what fruitfulness and faithfulness look like from soil and seed, from bushes and branches. It is here, with God the Gardener, that we learn to live, to grow, to be harvest, to die... and how to begin again, anew.