God in the Garden
- CMA - Guest Post
- Jun 18
- 2 min read
As plants carefully tended from seed finally burst into full abundance, it's worth taking a moment to think about gardening.
Not everyone is drawn to gardening, but I have always been. And I find, more and more, that other military friends of mine are getting into it too. But why?
Well reasons vary, at least on the surface level. Desire to access clean food, saving money, connecting with nature, becoming more self-sufficient, "prepping", reconnecting with tradition, teaching children, finding peace of mind...
...all varied reasons, for sure, but behind it all probably something above them all:
God is in the garden.
In one way, a garden is a living metaphor for the spiritual life. Seeds are sown, some find all they need and flourish, others find poor dry soil and so not. Further, a garden relies on us pulling up the weeds of sin, keeping the thorns and the pests in their place, driving back chaos to impose a sanctifying and fruitful order. Dead weeds and thorns are burned, and the ash returns to the soil. We labour with love, and fruit is borne of it.
From another perspective, we can remember that mankind was not created into a wilderness. We were created into the Garden of Eden, a garden we tended, and by tending to the garden we brought it into our creativity, and made it beautiful as a reflection of our love of our Creator.
God made us to tend to a garden, so we shouldn't be surprised that we find Him there, and thereby find peace.
In a wider sense, we are all blessed to live in Britain, which an especially special garden, ordered and blessed and enriched by centuries of Christian prayer and practice. Whatever horrible things happen in Parliament or in the cities, the soil of Britain has been in a way 'consecrated' by the ongoing devotion to Our Lady and the Christian spiritual life.
It "feels" different from jungles and deserts and other places never redeemed by Christ, it is holier, it is more blessed.
Let us continue to bless it by the way we love our lives.
Let us pull up the weeds, burn the thorns, and plant good things.
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