Many years ago my parent's front yard was always meticulously maintained with manicured lawns bereft of even a suggestion of a weed. The neighbours would scratch their heads and comment on how they just could not understand why their lawns did not look as good as Dads. My father was a Sales Representative by trade but I think he could have maintained the cricket pitch at The Adelaide Oval just as well as the professional groundskeepers did.

Every year one of my designated tasks throughout childhood was to sweep and rake up piles of leaves in our front garden. The leaves then had to be manually transferred with both hands and placed into a large bin. These were the days before blower vacs were invented. We had many deciduous trees -- at least a dozen Poplar trees -- tall and leafy, nice to look at but I never thought they were worth all the effort back then.

Sometimes the wind would scatter the leaves all about haphazardly just as I was about to pick them up. Other times the leaves would suddenly blow about dramatically which frustrated me no end. It was enough to put me off gardening for life! All that time and effort having to be repeated! It really upset me when Dad would just stand there and laugh. Laughing was the last thing on my mind. I did not like the feeling of helplessness or being at the mercy of the weather conditions.

Many years later my temporary garden today consists of a small patch of fake or artificial turf which never needs mowing, weeding, or watering but it gives me the desired green look of grass. Even though I would like natural lawn, I really cannot afford the time and money to devote to it and I do not own a lawnmower. In the tiny backyard there are a couple of trees which do drop their leaves in autumn and winter but these are easily blower vacuumed off the property without any chance of blowing back again.

Instead of all the back breaking and hand callous forming work from long ago, I derive great satisfaction and pleasure from tending to a myriad of hanging baskets with bright colourful flowers and other plant life. The act of nurturing and watching new buds form is a real delight. The time spent after work of an evening watering the plants especially throughout the long hot summer months is quite therapeutic and relaxing for me. It is so satisfying and pleasing to be in God's creation tending to my little garden. Invariably my thoughts drift to the original garden where we learn about life in God's Garden -- The Garden of Eden.

Where it all began eastward in Eden

Around 4,000 years B.C. God created and planted the idyllic Garden of Eden in the Middle East. The garden was beautiful and exquisite in every way and contained "every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. The tree of life was also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil". We can read about the garden in Genesis 2:8-15. This is where Adam and Eve lived until they were cast out due to disobedience to God through sin. However, until this occurred, living conditions in the garden were delightful and peaceful -- God's garden was a perfect paradise for the first humans to enjoy -- replete with every animal, tame in nature.

One can only imagine the beautiful array of colours from the myriad of fragrant plants, the gorgeous scents emanating from the fruit trees, some with delicate flowers, and the warm breezes wafting these scents as they brushed gently over Adam and Eve's bare skin and filled the garden where it all began. Abundant bird life with elegant flight and superb sounds to delight the ears. Trees tall and strong, diverse in design, providing shade through a canopy of lush leaves. Clean fresh air, pristine and bereft from the pollution of today's modern world. The water as clear as crystal -- the fruits on the trees, large, luscious and ripe with full flavour -- none of this watery, flavourless sort from the way fruits and vegetables are mass produced today. The garden would be a veritable feast to behold and enjoy, filling every sense with which God created mankind.

For the garden to grow and flourish God organised a great water source which would provide abundant hydration for the whole of the life contained therein. The garden was a haven, a healthy environment for growth and nourishment, and God provided invigorating and satisfying work for Adam and Eve by having them tend to the garden and keep it in the excellent condition to which it was formed. God ensured everything was put in place so that His children could take delight in Him, in one another, and in their surroundings.

God our Master Gardener and Landscaper

We may all have heard gardening terms such as fertilize, cultivate, germinate, mulch, organic matter, tilling, sowing, seedling, pruning, weeding, and so forth. We can relate to these terms on the physical and spiritual level by understanding that we need to be nourished, watered, pruned, shaped, formed, tended to, have the right conditions to flourish in, to produce an abundance of good fruits (Galatians 5:22-23) under the steady and watchful guidance of our Creator (Ezekial 36:9). He is always concerned with our welfare and invests His love through the devoted care of a Father who desires to bless us abundantly (Deuteronomy 30).

As Psalm 1:1-3 so eloquently states "Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stands in the path of sinners, nor sits in the seat of the scornful; but his delight is in the law of the LORD, and in His law he meditates day and night. He shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that brings forth its fruit in its season, whose leaf also shall not wither; and whatever he does shall prosper".

Meditating on God as the Master Gardener who provides all of our needs (Matthew 6:25-33) and the one who shelters us from harm and ensures our protection from enemies (Psalm 31 and 91), we can take great comfort in knowing just how much we are loved and desired by Him. Conversely, our enemy Satan would greatly enjoy walking and stomping all over us, crushing us, spraying his poisonous lies (John 8:44) until we are completely saturated in deception and cannot think straight or breathe so that all life is squeezed from within, thereby uprooting us from any relationship with our Creator, revelling in our death. Scripture tells us that God provides us with a barrier from the forces of evil -- a hedge, just like in the story of Job 1:6-12.

Being led by God to the Promised Land -- Our International Garden of Eden

Thankfully it does not have to be like this for any of us. We can read the Bible and see that in Revelation 19 Jesus Christ will return to earth in triumphant victory, and Satan will be bound for 1,000 years. There will be a new Jerusalem (read Revelation 21:9-21), there will be "a pure river of the water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding from the throne of God and of the Lamb. In the middle of its street, and on either side of the river, was the tree of life, which bore twelve fruits, each tree yielding its fruit every month. And the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations" (Revelation 22:1-2).

We will take part in the repair and restoration of all things as told in Isaiah 58:11-12. The restoration of all things will result in joy and healing to all nations in all lands (Isaiah 55:12-13). In the book of Jeremiah 31:12 we can read that ".....Their souls shall be like a well-watered garden, and they shall sorrow no more at all". Take comfort in Isaiah 51:3 as God tells us the wilderness will be made like Eden where all peoples of all nations will dwell together in harmony in an international Garden of Eden spanning the infinite universe eternally. We shall offer praise to the LORD from creation, as outlined in Psalm 148, forevermore.