Your Garden

‘Tis the season of the gardener!  Garden centers are stocked and ready for the green thumbs who will scoop up pots, soil, fertilizer, seeds, and plants.  Before you know it, flower beds and gardens will display the lovely colors of spring.  Yep, it’s time for me to get busy with my own gardening: I’ll hang a few baskets of blooms outside and garnish the front porch with a couple of flowering pots then the yard guy (Mr. Bill) will keep them watered and alive. Oh, how I love gardening!

Our Savior did big battle in a garden.   Matthew, Mark, and Luke give accounts of Jesus’ struggle in the Garden of Gethsemane with the horrors set before Him.  Mark describes Jesus as distressed and troubled and records Jesus’ words, “My soul is deeply grieved to the point of death.” (14:33-34)  Each gospel writer tells of Christ’s petition to The Father to intervene according to His will.  We know, of course, Jesus willingly surrendered, completing God’s plan for man’s redemption.  Giving up what the flesh wants must truly be one of the greatest struggles Believers face.  We want what we want; we want it now and we want it just like we want it!  We are born with this incessant drive to seek what satisfies the flesh.  Such was the humanity of Christ yet His divine nature was all-powerful, making Him faithful even unto death.  Whatever your present struggle, take it to YOUR garden of surrender.  Giving up to win may not make good worldly-sense and the struggle may certainly be more difficult than my idea of gardening, but it’s the only way to experience the sweetness of victory and know abundant Christian living.  Do not delay -- visit your garden today!