The kiss of the sun for pardon…

I couldn’t help it. The pack of cheerful, bright pansies were exactly what I needed for late winter doldrums. Of course, they enticed me in Boise where spring is well under way, flowering trees are in early bloom and back-yard gardens everywhere have awakened. I brought the pansies home and the next day planted them in the once-upon-a-time fountain outside my kitchen window. Digging in the dirt raised my spirits. I was happy. A small decorative stone by the fountain says it all: “One is nearer to God’s heart in a garden, than anywhere else on earth.” The words are from a lovely old poem by Dorothy Frances Gurney and like her, I find joy in gardens, especially my own. When I dig and plant and water, when I see the seedlings emerge, grow and become fruit, who else but the Creator can bring so much new life into mine.

In Genesis on the Third Day, God spoke and the earth brought forth seeds and grass and herbs, everything according to its own kind and He saw that it was good. The Master Gardener had designed a special garden for His children Adam and Eve, to dwell with Him, to walk and talk with Him in the cool of the evenings. All they had to do was obey one simple command: Do not eat from that tree. It was not a forced command for God gave humans free will to choose to obey or not. We know the rest of the story: Satan slithered in, they disobeyed God, sin entered mankind and Paradise was lost to them. Metaphorically, it became the Garden of Rebellion. Ever since humanity lives on the earth as rebels, separated from God . Because of sin which we bear, we also are barred from Eden.
Therefore the LORD God banished him from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken. Gen:3:23

Then the Lord then placed a warrior cherubim east of Eden with a flaming sword to keep fallen humans out!

It is Holy Week and we can celebrate that our Garden story isn’t over.God had a plan all along and the plan was Jesus, the perfect Lamb of God who perfectly obeyed His Father in all things.. It is in the Garden of Gethsemane where Jesus praying desperately to the point of sweating blood and fully knowing the death ahead, submitted to His Father’s will. He said yes to death on a Roman cross to atone for us sinners and restore us to the Father. In Gethsemane Judas betrayed Jesus; the disciples fled Him there; and the crowd came with violence, but it is metaphorically the Garden of Surrender. Jesus’. For us. This second and parallel Biblical Garden was replanted with His blood. Jesus’ “Yes” is our re-entry into the Garden of Reconciliation with our Creator.

I recall another old hymn “The Garden” by Charles Miles 1913.(Yes, I love the old songs!)

I come to the garden alone,
/While the dew is still on the roses;
/And the voice I hear, falling on my ear,/The Son of God discloses.

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.

How grateful I am this Holy Week for the Savior’s gift of eternal life. I can tarry in the Father, Son and Holy Spirit – as in a Garden- forever planting spring flowers. Maybe even pansies with their quirky upturned faces.