Perfect gift for the gardener!
What if God reveals all the ways He cares for you in tending and caring for plants?
What if growing a garden meant much more than beautiful backyard views, a shady retreat, or bountiful harvests? Discover through gardening God's amazing revelations, especially His desire to keep company with you.
Whether you are a seasoned gardener and confessed plant geek, or starting a garden and budding in faith, you will be inspired by this delightful look at the world’s oldest gardening book.
My Father is the Gardener digs into the plants, gardening, and landscapes of the Bible, unearthing inspiration in the routine ways of caring for plants and keeping a garden. Shelley S. Cramm leads you through the gardener’s work—chores like preparing soil, watering, weeding, cultivating, and composting—to understand these practices as enriching garden metaphors full of wisdom to help you find meaning in daily life. Her selection of featured Biblical plants, from flower bulbs to vegetables to shade and fruiting trees, connects horticultural subtleties to the hidden treasures of God.
Pleasing-to-the-eye pages await you, marrying classic botanical illustrations with mesmerizing macrophotography of pressed plant specimens from the BRIT Herbarium and supporting institutions. Artist Layla Luna offers original drawings with an earthy, playful style, stirring God’s Word to whorl off the page and into your heart.
Features:
- Beautifully illustrated hardcover with Biblical olive grove, wildflower field, and garden patch, wrapping around continuously from front to back, uncluttered by promotional copy
- Foreword by Lytton John Musselman, Ph.D., renowned Biblical botanist and author of Figs, Dates, Laurel, and Myrrh, Plants of the Bible and the Quran
- Devotional essays gathered in chapter themes of routine gardening work, connecting to all the great gardening Scriptures in the Old and New Testaments
- Botanical and horticultural information on more than 15 plants of the Bible, skillfully selected to enhance understanding of key Biblical concepts and gardening practices
- Fresh, original artwork by Fort Worth artist Layla Luna, illustrating the earthy, engaging way gardening is inherent to the Bible
- Fascinating macrophotography by Fort Worth photographer Gary Logan, showcasing Biblical plant specimens from BRIT Herbarium, Missouri Botanical Garden Herbarium, and U.S. National Herbarium at the Smithsonian Institution
- Botanical Renderings from historical sources, drawings by Redouté, Michaux and more, along with American artists Madeliene Francoise Basseporte and Elizabeth Blackwell
- Quotations from gardening authors across the ages accompany every essay, highlighting the broad scope of humor and heart-devotion gardeners have for their gardens
- Every page spread illustrated in color and decorated with ribbon-like renderings of Scripture
- Scripture quotations from over 35 translations of the Bible
- Fully indexed essays and index of Bible verses
- Complete concordance of featured plants, along with indexing by botanical classification and horticultural plant type
- Ribbon bookmark to keep your place or favorite page
See for yourself! Click to view the first chapter of the book:
