Originally published 21 September 2020. This is the blog entry that led to my book being written.
There are two gardens in the Bible that play a major part in the story.
First, there was the Garden of Eden. It was a perfect place, full of wildlife and fruit trees, and Adam and Eve were made to live there in peace all their lives, communing with God and with nature. But they sinned against God, acting in disobedience to His one rule not to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and they were cast out. (Genesis 2:8–Genesis 3:24) Genesis Eden is God’s garden. Lush and perfect, it is a picture of the Heaven we’ll one day see when Jesus Christ returns and takes us with Him to live forever with His Father in Heaven.
The second garden is the Garden of Gethsemane. This garden is a place of pain and fear. It is here that Jesus went with his three closest friends before his crucifixion, to pray to the Father to remove the burden He was carrying. Jesus was afraid of the cross. Even this perfect, sinless man–God and man at the same time–looked at the physical torture awaiting Him and suffered so much anxiety that he cried and sweated tears like blood. But He knew that God’s will is good and perfect, so he bowed to that will and faced His death, knowing of the paradise that would come after. (Mark 13:32–42, Luke 22:44)
Sometimes it can feel like we’re spending our lives in Gethsemane. This year has been extremely difficult. We’re facing COVID-19, racial tensions, political unrest, fires and natural disasters… every time we think this has to be it, something else happens to remind us that we are living in a fallen world. Like the psalmist, I often find myself crying out to God, “How long, Lord?” (Psalm 13:1–2) As much as I hate to admit it, sometimes I feel as though God has turned His back on us.
But God is with us always. There is a familiar hymn called “Great Is Thy Faithfulness.” Do you know it? It’s based on Lamentations 3:22–33, which reads, “‘It is of the Lord’s mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness.” (KJV) Sing with me, if you know it.
Great is Thy faithfulness, oh God my Father,
There is no shadow of turning with Thee;
Thou changest not, Thy compassions, they fail not
As Thou hast been Thou forever wilt be.
Great is Thy faithfulness! Great is Thy faithfulness!
Morning by morning new mercies I see;
All I have needed Thy hand hath provided—
Great is Thy faithfulness, Lord, unto me!
That hymn gives me such comfort. When it says “there is no shadow of turning with thee,” it’s reminding you that God does not change. He is always hold, righteous, loving, and good. He will never turn His back on us. Ever.
Jesus told us that in this world, we will have trouble, but that He has overcome the world. (John 16:33). Psalm 23 tells us that though we will walk through the valley of the shadow of death, that we need fear no evil, for God is with us. (Psalm 23:4) Over and over again, the Bible acknowledges that we will go through hard times on this world, but that God knows, God cares, and God will help us through it.
2020 seems like the year of Gethsemane. I am in the garden, deeply distressed. I see pain, illness, and strife all around me, and I am on my knees crying out to my Father to take this cup from me. “Please end COVID-19. Please end this racial tension. Please reconcile us to one another. Please calm the political and physical fires that are raging all around us. How long, Lord? ‘How long must I wrestle with my thoughts and day after day have sorrow in my heart?’ I feel like I can’t take much more of this. I need you, Father.”
And God reaches out His hand to me and holds me close. He knows I am in Gethsemane. He knows how much I’m struggling, and He cares. He whispers to me of Eden. This valley of the shadow of death will not last forever. I will get through this as I have gotten through all of my hard times before this. There will be more hard times to come, because this world is broken, and separated from Him. But He will be with me in all of them, and He has plans to prosper me and not to harm me; plans to give me hope and a future. (Jeremiah 29:11) He tells me not to give up on Eden. I may not be there now, but I will get there. He will see to it.
So like Jesus, I rise to my feet and walk forward to my future. Gethsemane is not my end, and Gethsemane is not your end. Cling to God. Trust in Him and He will be with you as you walk through Gethsemane to get to Eden.
