This is a continuation of the Jones quest to find just the right spot to leave our earthly remains.
We considered all kinds of places, but ultimately we came to know we wanted to be planted in a garden.
My father grew up on a farm. The love of the land never left him. Wherever he lived after that, he had a garden.
It was his joy. He often got up early and went to the garden. As soon as he got home from work, he went to the garden.
He planned out how and what he would plant in advance. He said he “loved to see things grow.”
Like an expectant father, he would check on his coming “babies” with great anticipation of the day he would see the first hint of green peeking through the ground.
He grew things he himself did not eat. He said with a smile, “I want to have something to divide with other people.”
The Bible is full of references to gardens.
God Himself is a Gardener.
He planted The Garden of Eden Himself. (Genesis 2:8)
God tended his garden with great care, providing water for its trees and plants. (Genesis 2:10)
He planned for Adam to work the land in partnership with Him. (Genesis 2:15)
Jesus went to a garden to pray. (Matthew 26:36)
Jesus’ body was laid in a tomb in a garden. (John 19:41)
Mary found her Risen Lord in the garden, but she did not recognize Him.
Jesus had previously said, “I am the true vine, and My Father is The Gardener.”
John 15:1
So it is funny that the reason Mary did not recognize Him is that she thought He was The Gardener. In fact, He was!
In 1 Corinthians 15, Paul tells how earthly planting of body seeds can lead to spiritual blooming.
“What you sow does not come to life unless it dies.
When you sow, you do not plant the body that will be, but just a seed, perhaps of wheat or of something else.
But God gives it a body as he has determined, and to each kind of seed he gives its own body.
Not all flesh is the same: People have one kind of flesh, animals have another, birds another and fish another.
There are also heavenly bodies and there are earthly bodies; but the splendor of the heavenly bodies is one kind, and the splendor of the earthly bodies is another.
The sun has one kind of splendor, the moon another and the stars another; and star differs from star in splendor.
So will it be with the resurrection of the dead. The body that is sown is perishable, it is raised imperishable;
it is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory;
it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power;
it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body!”
1 Corinthians 15:36-44
We want our earthly bodies to be planted when it is time … planted in a garden … in the continued Care of The Master Gardener.
