Garden

Our snow really disappeared yesterday. It was a cool day, but we had high winds and it took the majority of the snow off the front yard. The middle of the flower bed is still covered in snow from where we shoveled the roof, off, but around the edges there are tulips starting to poke through! I can't figure out why my crocuses haven't bloomed yet, but hope to see them soon as well. I was wondering why we long for our gardens so much, and besides the beauty of the flowers and the bounty of produce they offer, I think it's because life began in a garden, a perfect garden, free of weeds, disease, and pests. The perfect relationship between humans and God and between humans and themselves took place in that garden. There wasn't any disease, stress, or death in that garden. Life was perfect. Life was amazing. Can you imagine, there wasn't any knapweed, crab grass, aphids, or earwigs! God gave Adam and Eve the best of everything, yet they still wanted more. They decided they wanted to be like God and they chose to disobey him. Because of their choice of disobedience, they were banned from the perfect life, the perfect garden, and had to fight weeds, sickness, and death. God still was with them, but in a different way. They now had to go to Him, instead of Him just always walking with them. Just as parents have to discipline their children for bad choices, God had to discipline them, and us. We have to choose to believe in Him, He doesn't make us. Sin entered the world in that perfect garden, in the perfect relationships, and now we have to work at those relationships, both with God and with each other. We have to pick the weeds of life out of our relationships and cultivate meaningful relationships and work hard to produce bountiful friendships and time with God, the original gardener. So as I long for my Spring flowers and being able to plant my garden, my soul longs more for that perfect relationship with the Gardener, my Savior. He is always planting seeds in me and wanting to produce great things, but I have to take the time to grow them, spend time pulling the weeds of life out of the way, and get in the Word to nourish my soul.