Planting Gardens in Exile

2008, 5 pp
An excerpt:

"The act of eating is the coming together of our two natures – creator and creature. We create, at least symbolically, by working, shopping, cooking. But we are also part of this creation, because we eat. We bite, we chew, we taste. We swallow, we digest, we incorporate. And we become creation. We become rain, sun, and soil. God is creating us ..."

"...But growing a garden means more than saving energy and greenhouse gas emissions. Growing a garden brings together again the two parts of our God-given nature as creator and created. We don’t just plant seeds symbolically. We physically turn over the soil, bend down, put the seed in the ground, cover it up, pack the earth, pray for rain, and wait. And we pull weeds, and we wait. And we praise the rain, not because we’ve used the latest greatest rain-proof herbicide, but because rain is what God gives us, and what God gives us is good. Because we are open to the intricate, risky rhythms of God’s creative force, and we are learning to trust, and learning to dance."

"And then we harvest, and we cook, and we eat. We chew, taste, and swallow. We digest and incorporate. We become our garden. We become the very rain, sun, and soil of our own back yard. We become God’s creation. And in the discipline of gardening, we discover that all that we require as body and spirit – as creator and creature – is provided for in that little square of earth and in the pot of herbs on the windowsill: the stuff of fasting and feasting, labour and Sabbath, the stuff of nourishment and human relationship, the stuff of parables and sermons."

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