I’ve always loved gardens and green spaces. When I was in college, I would periodically take a day and drive up into the mountains, and sit in the woods, preferably by a stream and listen to the sounds of nature and let the green, and the fresh air restore my soul. 

I don’t think it is by accident that humanity’s relationship with God began in a Garden. There is also a lot of garden imagery in the decorations of the Tabernacle and the Temple. In Song of Solomon, the lovers describe each other as a garden. Isaiah speaks of the Lord making all of Israel like Eden, watered like the “Garden of the Lord.” 

And the night Jesus was betrayed, He went to a garden to pray.  Luke says, an angel strengthened Him there.

Gardens are Creation cultivated. They are collaborative spaces between God and Humanity. They are guarded and protected spaces. They are intimate spaces. Creation itself has a restorative effect, just as my outings in the woods did for me, but Gardens are a paradox, because, while they require maintenance and care, they also provide security and a kind of rest, that wild spaces do not.

There is a kind of collaboration that God is seeking from us, that is a blend of duty and diligence with profound rest and openness. It is faithfulness with great intimacy.

I’ve had the privilege of travelling a bit. I’ve visited gardens in England, France, Singapore, and in many places throughout my own country, the US.  It is interesting to see the many different approaches.

Some gardens are almost wild looking. Each plant while curated is allowed to grow in its natural shape. Different colors, textures, shapes and heights grow side by side in an explosion of life.

Other gardens have rows and rows of one plant, each neatly trimmed to stand like soldiers in a field. Hedges form deftly carved patterns that embody grandeur and elegance.

Each style has its own beauty. The wilder gardens are plant centered. Showcasing the beauty of the Creator’s handiwork.  The more formal gardens showcase man’s input, the mastery of the designer.  Each demonstrates knowledge, one of the unique elements of each plant, the other knowledge of design and sculpture.

I am sharing all these musings with you today, because it seems to me that our prayer lives are also a garden. They are a collaboration between God and each of us. The way in which we pray reflects the importance that we place on our role and the Creator’s role in creating a thing of beauty.

Some of us use forms and acronyms to keep us consistent, stressing our need for diligence and duty. Some are very fixed in the times that they set aside to “garden.”

Others sit still and wait for God to choose the topic, and then we help to bring that conversation into bloom. These like to linger and pass in and out of their gardens all throughout the day.

Hopefully, as you grow in your intimate knowing of who God is, you will open your heart to some of both, you will craft a unique collaboration and share an Eden of memories with your Creator that is yours and His alone.