One of my favorite activities is to visit gardens. Gardens full of fruit trees, fountains and flowers. And the colors! They entice all of the senses with their variety and beauty. They take me to a place of pure delight.
And yet, they don’t compare to the sacred gardens of God.
Eden
How loving of our God to set our original home in a garden! He prepared a perfect environment for His children, complete with all the jeweled colors of the rainbow (Ezekiel 28:13). God designed Eden as a place where all mankind would live in harmony with nature, each other and with God Himself. Indeed, this was a sacred garden. What more could man want?
To be god.
Rather than the first man and woman recognizing their Creator as their God, submitting to Him and His plans for them and enjoying His gifts, they succumbed to their pride and desire to be the creators of their own destiny. And so they forfeited their peaceful home, harmonious relationships, their blessed life with the One who loved them most. They lost it all, and as their descendants, so did we.
Gethsemane
Now their world - our world - is tainted by sin, full of death and mourning and crying and pain. All of their descendants - that includes us – are bent toward living independently, planning our own lives, choosing our own destinies, being our own god. Our relationships with nature, each other and most importantly, our Creator are damaged, broken. And we find we do not have the power to restore.
But God does.
Our Father, in His mercy never stopped loving us and initiated a plan to bring us back to our garden-home…to Him.
It was a radical plan. He would send His own Son to enter our broken world, fully God, fully man and He would make the choice Adam and Eve didn’t and we can’t on our own: to perfectly submit to His Father, the Creator God.
In the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus, the Messiah chose God’s plan and took on our punishment, experienced our death, our mourning, crying and pain.
Tomb
Our Savior was buried in a tomb set in a garden. (John 19:41)
And Our Savior rose from the tomb set in that garden! (Matt 28:5-6)
Victory
Jesus’ victory over sin and death opens the gates to our new garden-home. One where “He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.” Rev. 21:4
God’s restoration plan is complete. He’s given mankind another chance. All we need to do is choose to recognize God as our Father through the perfect submission of Jesus Our Savior and make Him the Lord of our lives.
And the eternal Sacred Garden is ours. (Rev.21:7)
Smell the flowers!
-Kathi Fritz (a talented member of the Crown of Beauty International community)
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