There’s nothing more heavenly during the sunny days of summer than to be in my garden tending the flowers. As I trim spent roses and water the lavender for the bees, I find a closeness with God I experience no other place on earth.
I tune out the noises around me and I can hear the birds and the bees near by. When I silence the swirling noise inside me, my senses come alive and I see the beauty and capture the fragrance of the blooms.
I treasure my summer garden and these moments when my heart and mind feel at peace and I know that God is near.
Today something was different as I walked among the roses, in the bright sun. I was a bit surprised when my heart began to feel heavy as my mind went to thoughts of the Garden God created for Eve. Soon I was wondering if the memory of God’s perfect Garden haunted Eve when she thought of all that was lost there.
As I continued thinking of Eve, I realized it was quite natural to identify with her in this way. I too have been feeling some loss as I’ve thought of the past several years and reflect on the challenges that have been packed into them; the many challenges and losses we’ve all had to face.
Yet, as my mind was on Eve and the Garden she had to leave behind, God quickly turned my attention to what was right in front of me and I became aware once again of the blooms around me. I saw the beauty that grows with little care from my feeble interventions. As quickly as the sadness came for thinking of Eve, God redirected my focus onto her great victory in her ability to keep going.
I thought of the courage and drive Eve had to begin again, establishing a second garden, not perfect by any means but a place of refuge, though it was outside of God’s perfect sanctuary she and Adam had once known.
And as I thought about Eve’s ability to keep going, God quickly reminded of my ability to keep going too.
Today I felt akin to Eve as I spent time in the garden. Like Eve, I came in all my broken humanity, burdened and limited in ways I never imagined I’d be. Yet just as God met Eve in her second garden, He came to meet me as well, reminding me that as a daughter of Eve, I too am an image bearer, forgiven, redeemed and made complete by the grace He gives.
Tomorrow will be a new day with a new garden experience for “less than perfect me.” I think, like Eve I will need to tackle the imperfect parts where weeds thrive among the flowers. I will keep thoughts of Eve close and be thankful that she has bravely gone before me and reminds me I too can still be close to God in the garden.
“So God expelled them from the Garden of Eden and sent them to work the ground, the same dirt out of which they’d been made. He threw them out of the garden and stationed angel-cherubim and a revolving sword of fire east of it, guarding the path to the Tree-of-Life.” Genesis 3:23-24