As the hustle-sprint of spring yields to summer’s vacation pace, it seems a well-appointed time to consider two subtle qualities of communion reflected in our garden-infused relationship with God. Hopefully, your vegetable seedlings are all transplanted and humming along, and you have bedded your favored annuals, complementing beloved perennial blooms. Everything is more-or-less weeded, fertilized, and mulched for now; pause with me, prepare an herbal iced tea, and calmly rest in deeper spiritual blessings of garden communion.
Garden communion, I’m calling it, because gardening can become an intimate connection to the Lord as taking communion is intended to be. There often comes a cherished, almost unconscious moment (or movement??) while gardening—when matters of the Spirit convene upon our handiwork, when the heavenly realm captivates our minds even as we engage soil, leaf mold, wriggly worms, and woody branches. We have come into alignment with God; our mindlessness in familiar chores transfigures as a welcome mat for beholding Him.
Garden Communion
Let us go back to the Scripture where our Savior established the practice of taking communion at the last Passover supper He shared with His disciples.
And as they were eating, Jesus took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to them and said, “Take, eat; this is My body.” Then He took the cup, and when He had given thanks He gave it to them, and they all drank from it. And He said to them, “This is My blood of the new covenant, which is shed for many.” Mark 14:22-24 NKJV
Yet how much more did the Son of God lead us to gardens and caring for them, the commissioning work in Genesis 2:15, by suffering in a garden, resurrecting in a garden tomb, and appearing as a gardener to Mary?
Then the Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to tend and keep it. Genesis 2:15 NKJV
And now they came to an olive grove called the Garden of Gethsemane, and he instructed his disciples, “Sit here, while I go and pray… My soul is crushed by sorrow to the point of death; stay here and watch with me.” Mark 14:32,34 TLB
Now in the place where He was crucified there was a garden, and in the garden a new tomb in which no one had yet been laid. John 19:41 NKJV
Jesus said to [Mary Magdalene], “Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you seeking?” She, supposing Him to be the gardener, said to Him, “Sir, if You have carried Him away, tell me where You have laid Him, and I will take Him away.” John 20:15 NKJV
Holy communion has an ordained place in the faith-life that God has set out for us, yet we can hardly deny that gardening does, too.
Battlefield Perspective
The following garden communion considerations come from the battlefield perspective of Rear Admiral Carey H. Cash, author of A Table in the Presence, Chaplain of the Marine Corps. Chaplain Cash relayed his experience leading communion with soldiers on battlefield sidelines at the outset of the war in Iraq, serving in Operation Iraqi Freedom. While typically the practice of taking communion is relegated to pristine sanctuaries, his story busts the encounter out of religious confinement and sets it in the wide open, conflicted landscape.
Jesus knew our need for making spiritual things concrete and touchable, Cash explained. Amidst the dry, blowing desert sands and impending military fight, soldiers were drawn to communion with God. The simple elements marked the soldiers’ rugged devotion, cleaving their hearts to Christ in the grips of gunfire. Chaplain Cash was thoughtful to publish his witness of this consecrated history.
Two revelations offered in his book struck me as remarkably relatable to our gardening experiences with God, though hopefully the only spilled blood we will see is in the form of blood meal fertilizer.
“Touched and Tasted”
Jesus…left us with a practice that would make the deepest spiritual realities—the unseen—come to life by being touched and tasted.
Carey H. Cash, A Table in the Presence, page 129
The desire for touching and tasting, for sensory connection to layer with spiritual connection, became profoundly clear to Chaplain Cash. Dear gardeners, does this resonate with you? Such is the genius of gardening, I think. Fresh aromas of morning air; brushes with rosemary branches that make us crave to cook something; nibbles of arugula, boysenberries, or rose petals along the way of cutting back and caring for…touching and tasting is a glorious part of gardening life, giving us a steady stream of gritty association in our hang time with Him. His way of life abounds in the garden, the “unseen” bursting in bulb tips and bird song all around us.
Open your mouth and taste, open your eyes and see—how good God is. Blessed are you who run to him. Psalm 34:8 The Message
Whatever happens, keep living your lives based on the reality of the gospel of Christ. Philippians 1:27 TPT
I am going to put it all together, pull it all together in a vast panorama. God’s Law is more real and lasting than the stars in the sky and the ground at your feet. Long after stars burn out and earth wears out, God’s Law will be alive and working. Mathew 5:17-18 The Message
Longing for Mystery
Communion fulfilled the deep longings that we all had, indeed that every human heart knows, for mystery.
Carey H. Cash, A Table in the Presence, page 130
Even as we need to grip the unseen in our hands, a larger story beckons, and we eat the bread and drink the wine in remembrance of Him with an underlying yearning for its mystery. That the commonness of bread and wine and humble turn to Christ would win such exquisite worship, how does that work?! Who are we to enter such long ago moments and eternal covenant in our everdayness?!
Does gardening offer us this similar mystery? Though communion holds unique holy ground, gardening is forever married to a secretive significance. The Lord himself planted a garden (Genesis 2:8), connecting our basic backyard shovels and rakes to this inimitable moment in ways that are a joy to acknowledge without fully comprehending. Like the psalmist cries:
Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too great for me to understand! Psalm 139:6 NLT
Chaplain Cash declares that our souls long for mystery—I agree! Mystery is a gravitating force in gardening, beckoning our curiosity and enticing with propulsion though sweaty brow and aching back to contented satisfaction. We keep company with amazing delights all along the way, from seed sprouting to flower budding to compost created from cast-offs.
A venture out the back door, even to just a simple cement patio with a couple of pots, can whisk us away with all the beckoning of Solomon’s garden to precious time in His Presence.
Let us go early to the vineyards to see if the vines have budded, if their blossoms have opened, and if the pomegranates are in bloom. There I will give you my love. Song of Songs 7:12 NIV
Meditating on Mystery
Let us linger in God’s Word on mystery, giving us much to ponder in the next round of weeding, fertilizing, and mulching that will bring us back to garden communion.
To the Lord, our God, belongs the mystery, but these things have been revealed to us and to our children so that we may observe all of the words of this law. Deuteronomy 29:28 NCB
Friends, when I came and told you the mystery that God had shared with us, I didn’t use big words or try to sound wise. In fact, while I was with you, I made up my mind to speak only about Jesus Christ, who had been nailed to a cross. 1 Corinthians 2:1 CEV
“Do you think you can explain the mystery of God? Do you think you can diagram God Almighty? God is far higher than you can imagine, far deeper than you can comprehend, Stretching farther than earth’s horizons, far wider than the endless ocean…” Job 11:7-8 The Message
Now to him who has the power to strengthen you in accordance with the gospel that I preach and the proclamation of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery that was kept secret for long ages but is now revealed, and through the prophetic writings is made known to all the nations according to the command of the eternal God to bring them to the obedience of faith— to God who alone is wise, through Jesus Christ be glory forever! Amen. Romans 16:25-27 NCB
[King Nebuchadnezzar] said to Daniel, “Your God is beyond question the God of all gods, the Master of all kings. And he solves all mysteries, I know, because you’ve solved this mystery.” Daniel 2:47 The Message
My passion is to enlighten every person to this divine mystery. It was hidden for ages past until now, and kept a secret in the heart of God, the Creator of all. Ephesians 3:9 TPT
Read a longer passage in Ephesians 3 on God’s mystery
This Christian life is a great mystery, far exceeding our understanding, but some things are clear enough: He appeared in a human body, was proved right by the invisible Spirit, was seen by angels. He was proclaimed among all kinds of peoples, believed in all over the world, taken up into heavenly glory. 1 Timothy 3:16 The Message
I waited and waited and waited for God. At last he looked; finally he listened. He lifted me out of the ditch, pulled me from deep mud. He stood me up on a solid rock to make sure I wouldn’t slip. He taught me how to sing the latest God-song, a praise-song to our God. More and more people are seeing this: they enter the mystery, abandoning themselves to God. Psalm 40:1-3 The Message
Closing Prayer
O Lord Jesus, thank you for the blessings You put in our lives. We thank you for Rear Admiral Carey H. Cash and his faithfulness to tell the story of Your wartime Presence, and even more so for all the soldiers who have served our country in all duty stations out of devotion to the freedom You have won for us. Thank you that we can watch for the revelations hard-won in pressing circumstances, while enjoying the peace and sanctity of our gardens. You allow us to glean much understanding from those who have suffered on our behalf, starting with You, Jesus. Let us be all the more committed to and abiding in Your goodness, mercy, and truth. Thank you for a practice that is both tangible and mysterious at the Lord’s supper, a communion so much a part of gardening care. What a joy to worship You! Amen.
They all realized they were in a place of holy mystery, that God was at work among them. They were quietly worshipful—and then noisily grateful, calling out among themselves, “God is back, looking to the needs of his people!” The news of Jesus spread all through the country. Luke 7:15-17 The Message
I highly recommend A Table in the Presence, by Carey H. Cash (Nashville, Tenn., W Publishing Group, 2004), one of my favorite all-time faith stories. Find Champlain Cash’s thoughts on communion on pages 129-130. For more garden insight gleaned from his writing, read “Preparing the Table,” pages 40-41 in My Father is the Gardener or page 624 of God’s Word for Gardeners Bible.
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Photo Credits: ©Shelley S. Cramm
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