THE GARDEN

THE GARDEN

Happy Easter Week! Hope this post finds you leaning into His glory and His joy! He is Risen!

Today, I spent most of morning gardening enjoying the beautiful weather and praying. No matter how I started each new prayer, they all led me back to the first garden! I wondered how it must have felt to be there and how I need to go back to that garden myself more often. I imagine it to have been a peaceful, calm, and relaxing place. A place of solace in nature, with beauty all around. The simple smells and sounds would bring a sense of contentment and joy. God’s joy. God’s love. God's design.

The Garden of Eden is described in the Book of Genesis as the location where the first human beings, Adam and Eve, lived after being created by God. This garden symbolized a perfect paradise where humans and nature live in perfect harmony. In this way, it can be like our own home gardens, a place of beauty, peace and communion with God and our environment, if properly tended. That’s the challenge. The if.

To properly order and tend to a garden, we have to be able to see the perfect creation inside of it. It requires weeding, mending, and fertilizing to bring new growth. The gardens in our daily lives show up more than just our homes, they dwell within us. When we tend to them, it can sometimes mean starting over, creating a new beginning where all the mistakes of the past are left behind. If not, we will never see the new growth that God has planned for us. God wants us to experience our past and lean into the future, but He doesn’t want us to stay in our weeds. The same can be true for how God tends to us.

God is with us and guides us through challenging times, but He doesn’t want us to stay there. He wants us to move forward. He provides us with the guidance, support, and wisdom necessary to help us grow and blossom into a better version of ourselves. When we recognize our tending needs, we see that He is there waiting on us to nurture us, help us grow, cultivate our hearts and celebrate us. There are so many weeds I need to clear out and just stepping back into the garden can help get me there. All God wants is for us to take the time to be still, to lean into Him and walk the path to Heaven together. I can only imagine how beautiful that garden will be! Peaceful, joyful, calm and relaxing. Our true beauty is seen in ourselves when our weeds in our hearts are gone.

My prayer for you today is that you create your own paradise in your garden and that along the way, you feel cultivated, mended, and loved by those around you. May you find the peace in the moment, the joy in the garden and your heart with the tranquility of Eden.

Together in prayer. Hand in hand.