Today I was reflecting on the imagery of gardens in the Bible.
God began His conversation with us in a garden. A quiet, beautiful place where we could walk and talk with God.
During the Exodus, the Israelites wandered through the wilderness. A stark contrast to the beautiful garden and abundant food and water of the garden of Eden, yet they took a year and built a “garden” together– God and Israel.
The tabernacle is a beautiful, carefully cultivated space where God and humanity can walk and talk together. It was decorated with pomegranates and other motifs of abundance and blessing.
One of my favorite verses, in the Passion translation, says “There is a private place reserved for the devoted lovers of YAHWEH, where they sit near Him and receive the revelation-secrets of his promises.”
I love that picture of a quiet place, cultivated to provide intimacy with God and me, for talk, for rest, for recreation and inspiration.
That is really what we all should be doing as disciples. Adam was charged with cultivating and keeping watch over the garden.
Each believer has a duty to cultivate and watch over their own personal garden. That place where you and God meet and connect in true friendship.
It helps to have a physical place and time, a routine that anchors your day, and guides you into a habit of walking and talking with God.
However, in recent years I have begun to add mindfulness to my quiet time routine.
Mindfulness encourages us to stop wrestling with our past, or worrying about the future, or just jumping in our minds from task to task trying to control things and keep a handle on things, and just to be present in the moment.
Those who teach mindfulness call this awareness. Awareness is about noticing what is happening right now without having to do anything about it. You notice your breathing, how your muscles feel, what thoughts pop up as you watch your breath or scan your body.
I have found benefit in this practice in and of itself. It is relaxing, and I do become aware of the stress I’m carrying and where, of how the stress is affecting my body. It allows me to make better choices with my health.
But it has also begun to evolve as a practice. I have started to cultivate awareness of God’s presence. Many scriptures promise that God is always with us. Psalm 139, Deuteronomy 31:6, Matthew 28:20, Hebrews 13:5 just to name a few.
Therefore, as I watch the breath come in and out of my body, and scan my muscles and joints, my abdomen to see what is going on inside me, I am met by a Presence, friendly and warm. That space inside where I am not alone and where a friendly and supportive voice greets me is always there like a tabernacle I carry inside myself.
My life on the outside often looks very much like that wilderness. Things are not neat and tidy, beautifully curated for rest and pleasure, but inside there is a tabernacle beautiful and sacred.
Another awareness has begun to dawn on me. I am not the gardener and designer of this “private place.” I don’t inhabit the garden that I build for God. I am the garden that He inhabits for Himself. Eden means “delight.” Zephaniah 3:17 says, “He takes delight in you with gladness. With His love, He will calm all your fears. He will rejoice over you with singing!”
I am not passive, and He does nothing without my consent, but He chooses me. He didn’t have to, and He is faithful to me even when the whirlwind around me makes that inner place of peace seem very small. He is a Garden that can never be lost! An Eden I cannot fall away from.
