Gods and gardens

'Now there was a garden in the place where he was crucified' John 19:41
'You are nearer to God's heart in a garden, than anywhere else on earth': that's what it says on thousands of bird baths, so it must be true! For many people it seems almost self-evident. Gardens are places of beauty, order, fragrance, peace and quiet. Until the modern TV-inspired craze for decking and arches, gardens were places where nature - with little human assistance - reigned supreme. So surely God is near us in the garden ...perhaps, argue some, nearer than he is in church? The human story begins, in the Bible, in a garden, though not one planted with human hands. 'The Lord God planted a garden in Eden, in the east.' It was a garden of delights, straight out of a Persian book of wonders. There was fruit of every kind, trees, abundantly flowing water, scents to charm the nostrils and colours to gladden the eye. And in the garden the Lord God set the man and the woman he had made, to enjoy it. In fact (you know the story!) they spoiled it, because they thought they knew better than God. The garden became a wilderness, a place of toil rather than pleasure.
But 'in the place where he was crucified there was a garden', and in that garden the body of the Saviour was 'aid in a rock tomb. And in that garden, on the third day, the one Paul called 'the second Adam' emerged, alive and triumphant, from the grave. The garden of death had become the garden of life. Where innocence was lost long ago, forgiveness and new life were won. Once again the flowers could bloom, the scents arise, the colours dazzle.
In a garden the human race was born. In that garden, at least, we are truly 'nearer God's heart'.