Gardens

Jesus is the Boss!

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 I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. John 15:1 NIV

When I opened my landscaping and tree care business in 1987, I came in with more than a dozen years of experience, a professional license and plenty of specialized training. My plan was to use my expertise to guide and educate customers in the “right way” to maintain their ornamental gardens and trees. After butting heads with my “uneducated customers” for a year, I discovered that my plan would definitely never work! I then spent the next thirty years learning that my real job was to listen to those customers and meet their needs. Once I had that figured out, doing my work became a lot more fun and people usually loved the results!

Sadly, when some of us first become Christians, we start out with that same mindset. Because we have been to Catechism class, or spent years in Sunday School, we are sure that we know how to be good Christians. But then life happens, and we find out that our way of doing the Christian life definitely doesn’t work! What we all need to learn is summed up in a scene that happened years ago at the end of one workday. My customer had come out to say hello and noticed a bumper sticker on my truck that said, “We Have a Friend in Jesus”. Pointing to it, he asked humorously, “Is that your partner?” I just shook my head and laughed and answered, “Oh no! He’s the boss!” Yes, Jesus is both the boss, and our Master Gardener, and doing life our way is not an option. But when we get our plans lined up with His design, then He has promised that our lives will begin to yield beautiful fruit!

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Gardening 101

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“I am the true grapevine, and my Father is the gardener. John 15:1 NLT

Maybe because I have been a lifelong gardener, my favorite hymn has always been “In the Garden”. Though theologians say it sounds more like a love song than a hymn and teenagers just roll their eyes wondering when it will be over, I still love those words. “And He walks with me and He talks with me,” is an invitation Jesus makes every morning, for us to spend time with Him in the garden of prayer. If you tarry you can almost hear Him calling your name, just like He called His disciples to pray with Him in the Garden of Gethsemane. Because we cannot see God now, except by faith, prayer is a blessing unique to our life on earth. In Heaven we will see Jesus face to face, but now we may only hear His voice from a distance, and yet even then, it is so sweet that the birds hush their singing at its sound. I hope you will be blessed listening to this song. I sense the presence of the Gardener of Heaven, almost every time I get to sing it!

The Miracle of the Church

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And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, 
and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. 
Matthew 16:18 ESV

That afternoon, I sat with my shotgun in hand, waiting and watching to catch the perpetrator of the recent crimes, but the sly fellow never appeared. Nevertheless, by morning the evidence of his skullduggery was again on display, and my zucchini squash plants lay in ruins. Mr. Groundhog never showed his head, but the evidence of his deeds was a clear reminder that a mere garden fence would not keep him at bay. Yet, I did not give up on our vegetable patch. I replanted and strengthened the fence and was delighted to discover that though the zucchini crop was a bust, we reaped tomatoes, peppers and green beans in abundance that year. In the same way, when we grow spiritually fatigued, discouraged and disillusioned by scandal among church leaders, fellow church members, or ourselves, we must not give in to despair. Instead, remember that attacks are not a sign of defeat. Rather, the impact of our spiritual garden attacker does not, will not and has never destroyed the success of all the crops.

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After all, it would be no miracle if God’s church grew unimpeded throughout the centuries because all Christians were perfect. The miracle is that, in spite of our glaring shortcomings, scandals and weaknesses, God has continued to build His church, and after two thousand years she remains alive and well. Each time the enemy has broken through the garden fence, God in mercy knelt down and went to work in His garden. He didn’t tell Peter He needed a perfect church to build His Kingdom. Instead, God’s promise was that by the miracle of His grace, He would rebuild the garden fence, replant the damaged rows and in the end reap an abundant harvest that no power of hell could ever destroy!