As trees begin to bud and tulips peep above the winter ground, thoughts turn to spring and new life. I’m not a gardener, but I love wandering through a well-tended space. The smell of the damp earth and the beautiful blooms stir something in me—a yearning I suspect is as ancient as the first garden, Eden.
It was in a garden where God knelt to gather earth and form it into a man. God breathed into that clay and man became a living soul. It says in Genesis that God planted the garden and then placed Adam and Eve there to tend it.
Scripture doesn’t tell us how long Adam and Eve enjoyed the work God had given them in the paradise He had prepared for them. It does mention God joining them to walk in the cool of the evening. Calling their names to have them come close.
“Adam. Eve. I’m here.”
Can you imagine? Rinsing off the sweat and dust from the day, pulling your hair up off your neck, and strolling through paradise with your Creator, your Best Friend. Just the thought of it fills my chest with longing.
Still, at some point, Adam and Eve became tempted with the idea of more. I’d like to fault them for it, but I have the same desire coursing through my veins as well. The idea of more wisdom, more pleasure, more, more, more—it never goes away. And when the right temptation is placed in front of me at the right time, it’s awfully hard to say no. Be it a forbidden apple or a chocolate drizzled piece of cheesecake, we humans are a “yes please” people.
The amazing thing isn’t so much that Adam and Eve turned their attention and satisfaction away from God and chose their own path. The shocking thing is that God witnessed their rejection and sought them out anyway. He knew they had tasted rebellion and sin and death. He knew they would never be pure apart from His intervention on their behalf. And yet, He loved them enough to leave Heaven and come to them in the cool of the day as always.
“Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden.”
Genesis 3:8
I wonder if He thought of that first garden encounter when He knelt in the garden of Gethsemane, preparing to give His life for the lives of those very same people He created so long before. People that had come to Him for bread and healing yet rejected His offer of relationship. People who had cried, “hosanna,” days before and were about to cry, “crucify Him” in the hours to come. Despite all the heartache humanity had poured on His shoulders, He still willingly gave His blood for us. Blood that made a way for us to live with Him forever in the new heaven and new earth He is preparing for us now.
Mary Magdalene didn’t understand all that had been granted to her that morning she wept in the garden outside His empty tomb. She thought her hopes for the future died with Jesus. Can you imagine the confusion coursing through her as she pleaded to the man she thought was the gardener to show her the body of her friend? She was devastated already at losing Him and then horrified that she might not be able to properly prepare His body with the care He deserved. Then in a moment, her name on His lips changed everything.
“Mary.”
The love and compassion in those four little letters makes me cry. Sin took down the human race, but Love won the fight. Death steals. Life gives and gives and gives for eternity. Satan breaks his promises. Jesus allowed His own body to be broken to fulfill every promise He ever made.
This Easter weekend you may feel as Mary did—heartbroken and weary and afraid. But there is hope for you just as there was for her though she didn’t see it yet. She saw an empty tomb and believed the worst had happened. She couldn’t imagine a future where Jesus walked with her full of life, eyes sparkling with joy and celebration from all He had accomplished. A future that was moments away from the grief she was in at the time.
This world still rotates in brokenness and pain. Every day death steals those we love. Sickness sweeps the planet and disaster is almost celebrated on the nightly news. Yet Jesus stands beside us and calls to us through our suffering. He speaks our name, reaches out a nail-scarred hand, and smiles—a cheesy, playful, I’ve-got-a-secret smile because He knows what’s coming.
Take His hand, my friend! Get to know Him as more than the angry man who flipped over the tables in the temple and put Pharisees in their place. Walk with the man who had all the fish hide on the other side of the boat just so He could surprise the men with an abundance after a long night of catching nothing. Place your hopes on the One who grabbed the keys of death and hell right out of the hand of the Enemy and then walked through walls to tell His friends about it. (You can’t tell me He didn’t have a good belly laugh over the looks on their faces when He pulled that stunt.)
Jesus is SO full of bubbly, sparkling, life and He wants to share it with you! Not just when you get to heaven, but today and Tuesday and on Tax Day and the Monday after that. Jesus will meet you in your garden whether it’s in a season of confusion or in the middle of a mess of your own making.
Jesus’ dying wish was to be your friend. Won’t you grant Him that? He loves you. He’s calling your name. Don’t hide from Him like Adam and Eve did. Hug His neck like Mary.
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
Songwriters: Mark Hayes / C. Austin Miles