Isaiah 61:11 “ For as the earth bringeth forth her bud, and as the garden causeth the things that are sown in it to spring forth; so the Lord God will cause righteousness and praise to spring forth before all nations.”
On a wrought-iron garden bench in an old-fashioned garden I once found a little poem, which I have since suggested to many gardeners. It read:
The kiss of the sun for pardon --
The song of the birds for mirth --
One is nearer God's heart in a garden
Than anywhere else on earth.
It seems a particularly appropriate Springtime thought, for at heart we are all gardeners. As men benefit by improved transportation facilities and leave the crowded confines of tenements and city streets, they come into the suburbs where every home has a little patch of land around it. And they look upon that land with atavistic musing, for once, before this mechanized age settled upon our world, almost all our ancestors eked their living from the soil. The urge to return to the soil is strong, and in Suburbia it takes but a few years before the city-dwellers take their spades and turn over the soil to grow radishes, parsley and whatever else may come up.
Even I must make a personal confession. One who never cared for gardening, believing it to be unspeakable drudgery, yet I finally became infected with the dangerous garden virus. The inviting soil seemed to demand cultivation. Finally, last year, I sowed the seeds for a row of marigolds along the church wall. Better gardeners than I were quick to accuse me of horticultural malfeasance. They said that I sowed the seeds wrongly, used the wrong fertilizer and followed improper methods of cultivation. But the marigolds grew and blossomed profusely. Several times during the summer months they adorned the altar of our church. And until the frost came, they shed their golden glow over the whole yard.
Here is a springtime thought: God has gardens, too. He plants them to bloom, to be fragrant, to give cheer and to show forth beauty. The whole earth is a garden of God . Consider the natural beauties of the earth. Eyesores are man-created. Nature always produces beauty; or if, by chance, some catastrophe of Nature scars the earth, she rapidly covers the scene with her luxurious green growth. The profuse blooming of wildflowers, trees and plants, as well as the gorgeous coloring of sunsets and mountains, give credence to our belief that God has intended to make this world as beautiful as is divinely possible. Only the human element is capable of detracting from this beauty created by the divine.
We can learn of our relation to God through this example of the gardens. As a gardener carefully tends his patch of earth, removing weeds, cultivating and constantly giving it his loving care, so God cares for this world. And we can believe that the Church of Christ is a special garden of God . In the Song of Solomon, the poet speaks of Christ's love to His Church, saying that it is “A garden enclosed -- Thy plants are camphor, with spikenard and saffron; myrrh and aloes, with all the chief spices. Awake, O North wind; and come, thou South; blow upon my garden that the spices may flow out.”
And we can believe that the soul is a garden of God . It is His vineyard, His fruitful field. There are beautiful souls that adorn the earth like flowers, scattering fragrance and joy. These are God's gardens; the garden of the Church and the garden of the soul.
1. The Garden of Christ 's Church
The Prophet Isaiah speaks of Christ's flourishing kingdom in terms of a garden reclaimed from the desert. “The desert shall rejoice and shall blossom as the rose. It shall blossom abundantly and rejoice even with joy and singing.”
In a sense, this is true of the Church even today. In this barren and materialistic world, how little beauty, how little peace, how little art, how little music can be found outside of the Church. All the outer world seems shrouded in gloom and wrapped in its own pessimism. The passion for utility and the smoldering hatreds that are so easily fanned into war represent truly the barrenness and unproductivity of the world. But when there comes into this dreary atmosphere the spirit of Christ, then the desert blossoms.
The striking contrast of this picture preaches a sermon in itself. A desert is a gloomy place, with wide wastes of hot sand where nothing grows save a few utterly uninviting cactus plants. The steaming sand is marked by the whitened bones of animals which have perished. Certainly there is no joy and no hope on the desert.
What a change from a desert into a rose garden, with its sweet fragrance and its indescribable beauty! Yet even current history records such actual changes. There are sections of the State of Arizona which a few years ago were waste land, uninhabitable and useless. By means of irrigation, huge portions of that territory have been reclaimed and have become fertile and useful. Roses, as well as all other forms of vegetation, can now grow there. A desert has become a garden, because the rivers of water were directed into it to give it life. So the rivers of God's grace can be directed into our lives, to change them and to give them beauty.
But the Church is a “garden enclosed.” Like most gardens, this does not mean that it is shut off by high walls and barbed wire from the world, but rather that it is separated by inviting green hedges. All may look upon it and enjoy it, so that the desire to enter it is aroused within them. Gardens are enclosed for protection against harmful animals, vandals and other enemies, so that the rightful owner may enjoy the fruits of his cultivation in due season.
So it is with the Church. It is set apart from the world so that it may be kept safe from harm, so that the rightful and righteous God may enjoy the fruits. But be assured, no true friend of God is kept out of Church! No true friend of the Gardener is ever kept out of the Garden! But pests and vandals and harmful insects need Church and keeps it pure, yet in cheerful hospitality cordially invites all true friends of God to come in.
And the Garden of the Church, like all our gardens, is a place of refuge. We are all under the inhuman strain of living in a machine age. We are affected by the rush and bustle of a business office or by the chilling routines of housework. After days spent bent over a desk with a ledge or bent over a sink with a dishpan, we need a change. Take refuge in a garden! Real estate reports show us a constantly increasing trend toward small Summer homes and farms in the mountains. Certainly this is a salutary move for the health and safety of the nation. The quiet, the solitude and the closeness to Nature are tonics for jaded nerves and weakened physiques. For health, relaxation and a restored optimism a garden is a great help. I mention optimism, because every gardener is a great optimist. He plants a little seed, fully expecting to reap prize flowers or vegetables. Where else is optimism so terrible and so widespread as among gardeners?
The Garden of the Church is a place of refuge and optimism for all men. The same weary nerve-strain of living demands frequent spiritual refreshment and renewal. Where can men better turn than to their churches, where the Lord is ever ready to direct them to greener pastures and where He “ restoreth my soul?” For spiritual health, for the soul's restoration and nourishment, for the opportunity to look forward and upward, men must turn to the Church.
2. The Garden of the Soul
The human soul is also God's garden, and like so many gardens, it is frequently a reclaimed spot. Have you not at some time complemented a friend upon the lovely garden around his house and heard him say in reply “You should have seen it when I moved here! No grass, only weeds. No top soil, only rocks, tin cans and dried-out clods of earth.” How different it is when care has transformed it from an ugly place to a place of joy and beauty. So with the soul, also. How barren and ugly, what an eyesore some souls are! And how God can transform them!
The soul, like a garden, needs constant and careful attention. Weeds can grow overnight and it takes daily service to pick out the unwanted growths, to water, to cultivate and to pick off the bloomed-out flowers. Eternal vigilance is the gardener's price for beauty, color and fragrance. The soul cannot be permitted to go to seed. It needs constant attention, effort and striving, or the weeds will grow.
The soul, like a garden, needs rain. Not all of life is sunshine and joy. Rain is an important part of the growth of souls and of gardens.
“Is it raining, little flower?
Be glad for rain.
The sun that veils itself from thee
Will shine again.
The clouds are very black, ‘tis true,
But just behind them shines the blue.
Art thou weary, tender heart?
Be glad for pain.
In sorrow sweetest things will grow,
As flowers in rain.
God watches, and thou wilt have sun
When clouds their perfect work have done.” *
The soul, like a garden, yields whatever is sown. In Japan , unsuspecting peasants were sold “magic rice.” This rice, the glib peddlers said, would bring forth whatever was wanted; barley or wheat or watermelons or anything. But when the peasants sowed it in the fields, it came up simply as rice. A gardener is wiser than those Japanese peasants. He knows that if he sows good seed, he is likely to have a good crop. If he sows dragon's teeth, he will reap spears. “God is not mocked. Whatsoever a man soweth , that shall he also reap.”
The soul, like a garden, should yield beauty and fragrance. Suppose you saw a man for years dig furiously in his land each Spring , and then nightly get out his hose and sprinkle the soil, and often pull up the weeds and tares, and yet never have anything grow? You would say “Either that man failed to sow seed, or his ground is utterly worthless.” So, in the Soul, there must be a yield of beauty and fragrance.
Emily Huntingdon Miller writes “If a merchant has diamonds to sell, he does not shut them in a drawer or display them in a rough box. He puts the jewels on beds of satin, in cases of velvet, and uses every art to display their beauty. Your Christian principles ought to be rendered so attractive by your own personality, that those who know you will associate goodness with graciousness.”
The soul, like a garden, faces frost and death. In November the leaves turn brown, the flowers wilt and fall. But no gardener thereupon burns his tools and says “Well, that's all there will ever be.” In the Spring the brown turns to green and the flowers thrust forth from their earthy beds to bloom again. The German poet Goethe wrote “In Springtime all Nature preaches immortality.” Is it different with the Soul?
There is an old anecdote about a college professor who always began his lectures by saying, “When I was walking in my garden, I thought.......” The students all wondered about the beautiful garden that provided such inspiration for their teacher. Rumors spread on the campus about its magnificence. One day a few visited it. They found it to be a small narrow backyard, mostly lawn, with a few clusters of flowers.
“Is this the wonderful garden you talk so much about?” they asked in astonishment. “It is so poor, so small, so narrow!”
“Why, boys,” said the Professor, “Look up and see how high it is. It reaches the heavens!”
So it is with all gardens. Look up and see! They reach up to the heavens!