The Garden

Depending on which sort of Christian circles you’ve been primarily exposed to, you’ve probably heard about either the Seed; or the frail, weak, and useless clay/dust. I would like to look at it from a different angle, and talk about the garden.

There is an interesting statement in the book of Isaiah: "… the garden causes the things planted in it to grow …" I’m convinced that you are a garden, and I am a garden. I’m also convinced that the unique "stuff" that we as believers bring to the world is not a result of a unique portion of the Holy Spirit given to us—after all, Paul repeatedly and emphatically states that we all share of one Spirit—but as a result of the unique make-up of our garden.

I have recently concluded that God has built into each one of us—each in a unique and specific way—the capacity to cause the Seed planted in us to grow, and that—again, each in a unique and specific way—the growth of that Seed brings with it an abundance of everything we need. The garden is nothing without the Seed, but, quite frankly, the Seed is mostly useless without the garden, either.

What I have discovered in my own life is similar to what was said regarding Abraham’s trip to the mountain, to sacrifice Isaac: "In the mountain of the Lord it will be provided." It is not in my conforming to a set of standards (get a college degree; have a full-time job; ’suck up to’ influential people) that provision is found. I have discovered provision as I step forward to do the will of the Father for me. I plow up my garden, I sow obedience, and I reap mercy. Just as Abraham didn’t see the ram for the sacrifice until he was in the act of obedience to the Lord, so I seldom see my provision until I am busy doing the will of the Father. For me.

Jesus put it beautifully when he said that we don’t need to be anxious about food and clothes. Real life, he said, is so much more than that. It isn’t that food and clothes aren’t necessary, but that our Father knows we need them. He’s built in provision for that … which we will find in the mountain of the Lord. We’ll find what we need to live our lives as we go about the business of living our lives, and each of our lives is found in the combination of our unique garden and the One Seed planted within us.

What we need to understand is that real life is not found in searching for what we need to live life. Chasing after provision is not where we find life. We find life in doing the will of the Father, and as we’re doing His will, in conjunction with our activity, provision is there.

The Seed and the garden work together to produce an abundance.

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