My Father, the gardener (Dan Wells)

“Now the Lord God had planted a garden in the east, in Eden” (Genesis 2:8)

“I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener.” (John 15:1)

If you know me, you probably know that I am not a very good gardener. Suffering from hay fever, I’m never quite at home mowing grass or weeding and when I do try and often have no clue what is a weed and what is not!

I may be a dreadful gardener, but God is not. First of all, God created every plant and flower we enjoy in gardens and parks. He did not create them only in general, but every flower god lovingly brings into existence. The writer G. K. Chesterton once wrote that “it may be that God makes every daisy separately, but has never got tired of making them.”

God is creator, but God is also a gardener. He made a garden for our first ancestors, Adam and Eve, to live in. He didn’t just create Eden, he planted it. God planned and dug and cultivated and tended the garden. He made it for us.

Jesus came to make the Father known to us, and he said, “my Father is the gardener.” Our Heavenly Father is a person who loves to plant, look after and watch things grow. That includes you and me. He wants you and I to grow and flourish. We are going to spend this week walking through some of the gardens of the Bible with our loving Heavenly Gardener.

Almighty God, thank you that you are mighty and magnificent, and you are gentle and nurturing. Thank you that you stoop down to tend to your creation like a gardener. Help me to grow, I pray. Amen.