Family Devotions: The Garden

A friend and I once decided to grow the perfect garden. We chose our favorite fruits and vegetables. We carefully planted the seeds and seedlings, imagining dribbly-sweet watermelon and butter-slathered corn on the cob. By midsummer our hours on the job, vacation time, and even some laziness had reduced our beautiful garden to a worthless joke. The hope of ripened produce was all but gone.

The Garden of Eden really was the perfect garden. God made “all kinds of . . . trees that were pleasing to the eye and good for food” (Genesis 2:9). Rivers watered the garden and teemed with fish. Birds and animals thrived. God had made the garden both beautiful and useful. But even better than clear streams and colorful flowers was God’s presence. Since Adam and Eve were without sin, they could walk and talk with God face-to-face. That friendship was the heavenly Father’s plan for his children.

The perfect garden and that perfect friendship were ruined when Adam and Eve sinned. Their sin was no joking matter. God hates sin. It means death and eternal fire. And it is passed down from one generation to the next. We’re just as tainted by sin as Adam and Eve were. Yet God’s love didn’t leave us in our sin-infected mess. He sent Jesus to suffer and die so that we can inherit heaven—a place even more glorious than Eden.

In John’s book of Revelation, God gives us a beautiful picture of heaven. There God will walk with his people again. There we will live forever without sadness or pain.

My friend and I had high hopes for our garden, but we were disappointed. God’s eternal garden will not disappoint us. Jesus himself promises, “Behold, I am coming soon! . . . Blessed are those who wash their robes, that they may have the right to the tree of life” (Revelation 22:12,14).

PRAYER: Dear Lord, help us keep heaven’s eternal, perfect garden of God’s love in our hearts. Amen.

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