You are a Garden and a Gardener Depending on Circumstances

Have you heard of a garden who is also a gardener before? I am sure you have not tuned your mind to it that way but it is a reality shrouded in the word of God. There are Bible verses that point to the fact that you are a garden, a gardener and you live in a garden. Per this article, let us find out why you can be called a garden but another time you can be referred to as a gardener and you live in a garden. Human life actually started in a garden, the Garden of Eden.

The creation story in the Bible points to the fact that God made a garden and put man (Adam) in it. God later created woman (Eve) out of Adam within the Garden. Therefore, the first human beings lived in a garden and they supervised the Garden so they were gardeners (Genesis 2: 15).

Reading the Bible, one can identify different types of gardens namely:

The Garden of God: This garden is also called the Lord’s Garden or Garden of Eden, which is watered by four rivers (Pishon, Gihon, Tigris and Euphrates). In Ezekiel 28: 13, God reminded the prophet of the Garden of Eden. He said, “You were in Eden, the Garden of God; …Your settings and mountains were made of gold; on the day you were created, they were prepared.” God is, therefore, a gardener. Even Jesus said so in John 15: 1 which states, “I am the true vine, and my Father is the Gardener.” In God’s Garden, therefore, both plants and humans grow therein.

Physical Gardens: There are also physical gardens such as vegetable garden as stated in Deuteronomy 11:10 and 1 Kings 21: 2. There is also a Palace Garden or the Garden of Uzza which served as burial ground for Manasseh (2Kings 21:18). The Palace Garden, which is another type of a physical garden, is also called the King’s Garden in 2Kings 25:4, Esther 1:5 and Esther 7:8. Ecclesiastic 2:5 also points to a physical garden when it states, “I made gardens and parks and planted all kinds of fruit trees in them.” In reference to keeping a physical garden, God advised His people to build houses to settle down and plant gardens and eat what the gardens produce (Jeremiah 29:5). This means that humankind has not only been living in gardens but also a gardener. During His agony period, Jesus went and prayed in a Physical Garden called Gethsemane at the foot of Mount Olives in Jerusalem (John 18: 1) and when He died His body was also buried in a Garden (John 19:41-42). The Bible refers to Jesus as the Second Adam who used another garden to atone for the sin the First Adam (husband of Eve) committed in another Garden (Eden). Meanwhile, Judas Iscariot also committed his sin of betrayal of Jesus in the same garden (Gethsemane) in which Jesus said his final prayers for humanity. In the same Garden of Gethsemane, Apostle Simon Peter revenged Jesus’ arrest by cutting Malchus’ ear but Jesus reversed the revenge by healing Malchus instantly (John 18: 10).

The resurrection or germination of God’s true vine (Jesus) also occurred in a Physical Garden (John 19: 41) where Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus buried Jesus’ holy body in a new tomb.

Figurative Gardens: There are also gardens that are not physical but figurative. They are depicted in the Bible using simile. In literature, simile (pronounced /simili/) is a figure of speech that compares one thing with another of a different kind for the purpose of an emphatic or vivid description. Simile uses words such as like or as. Isaiah 58: 11 refers to a figurative garden. It states, “The Lord will guide you always…You will be like a well-watered garden…” Numbers 24:6 also says Jacobs’ tents are like gardens beside a river. In Luke 13:19 Jesus also likens the Kingdom of God to a mustard seed that a man planted in his garden.

Human Gardens: Apart from the fact that human beings live in gardens and they tend gardens as we saw earlier, they are equally referred to as gardens. This is where you are both a garden and a gardener depending on the circumstances as the caption of this article puts it. Isaiah 58: 11 says humankind is a garden under the guidance of God. Songs of Solomon 4:12 also points to a human garden. It states, “You are a garden locked up, my sister, my bride…” One may dare say that one’s spouse and children are a garden bestowed by God and just as it was expected of Adam, every spouse is required to tend his or her garden (marriage/family) well whether or not the marriage is blessed with children. A friend and a brother of mine, Dr. Hubert Houkpatin, a Dental Surgeon of Ada East District Hospital whom I call Dosah once told me that one’s family is a garden given by God and I later discovered it in the Bible. Indeed, our family is a human garden and all of us are planted in that garden. Ultimately, however, one Gardener called the Lord God tends every garden. At the same time, we are human gardeners in the human garden and in our plant gardens. I thank Dosah for teaching me this and I thank the Holy Spirit for revealing more to me in the word of God. Even Jesus is a vine in the Garden of God (“I am the true vine, and my Father is the Gardener”). I dare say that even the works of your hands (your job) is your garden, which you must tend well.

Human Gardeners: Several verses in the Bible also points to the fact that human beings are gardeners. As such, it reiterates the fact that you a garden and a gardener depending on the circumstances. Isaiah 1:29 cautions that depending on the type of garden you have chosen as a gardener, you may be disgraced. God in Amos 9:14 talked of bringing His people called Israel from exile and empowering them to make gardens and eat fruits therefrom. The prophet Jeremiah advised the Israelites to plant physical gardens and eat the produce from those gardens. Amos 4:9 also underscores the fact that there are human gardeners whose gardens the Lord God strikes and destroys with blight, locusts and mildew. Luke 13: 19 also talks about a human gardener. In John 20:15, Mary Magdalene mistook Jesus for a human gardener in charge of the physical garden in which Jesus’ tomb was located.

It is clear from the article that God is a gardener, Jesus is the true vine in that garden and all of us are different “plants” sprouting from the true vine in the same Garden of God. We are also “plants” in God’s Garden and at the same time, we keep physical gardens (the works of our hands) as well as human gardens (our family). We equally live in gardens called our family. Therefore, we are both gardens and gardeners. What type of garden are you and what type of gardener are you? Reflect over this and may the Spirit of the Lord God teach you what you need to know about your garden and the kind of gardener you are. May you be a good gardener, may your garden be fruitful for your benefit and may you be a good “plant” in a garden tended by God or by your family.

~Asante Sana ~

Author: Philip Afeti Korto

Email: [email protected]