For many enthusiasts, tending flower beds and growing vegetables is a spiritual activity that helps them grow closer to God. It has been this manner throughout Christian history, perhaps inspired by the story of the very starting of humankind in the right paradise of Eden.
Then from the earliest days of monasticism, to modern smallholders and homesteaders, faith and dealing on the land have been deeply related to each other.
Biblical lessons
Of course for most individuals on this planet, and within the West before the trendy era, survival and life itself relied on the practice of horticulture. Everyone except the very wealthy would enrich their food regimen by cultivating vegetables and fruits in any ground that may very well be found, and a much larger proportion of the population worked as small farmers. Perhaps that is one reason why the Bible is filled with references to and metaphors of plant growth to show about spiritual life.
The fertility and abundance of fine fruit is contrasted with the aridity and famine of a desert throughout. Jesus selected cultivation as an instance spiritual growth within the parable of the sower; in Psalm 1 those that meditate on scripture are “like trees planted along the riverbank, bearing fruit each season.” Gardening subsequently brings a deeper understanding of those passages, in addition to awe of the great thing about the created world.
Eden
The Creation Story features the primary gardeners, Adam and Eve. “I actually have given you each seed-bearing plant throughout the earth and all of the fruit trees in your food,” God said, together with the command to subdue or steward the Earth. It was the autumn that introduced the back-breaking exertions of agriculture, but our origin story suggests it wasn’t meant to be so.
Monastic beginnings
From the earliest days of Christianity, cultivating food was a very important a part of life, especially in monasticism. The Egyptian cenobites grew plants outside their caves within the third century, and never long after, the cave dweller St Jerome began his education of a peer with: “Hoe your ground, set out cabbages.”
St Benedict tended a rose garden that also exists, based on Teresa McLean in ‘Medieval English Gardens’, and the massive and organised monasteries that he inspired featured quite a lot of gardens for various purposes: growing vegetables, growing herbs for scent, flavour and medicine, and even beautiful flowers for pure enjoyment. Medieval churches would have a small garden or “paradise” put aside for contemplation and prayer.
Living off the land
Monks were in fact depending on the land for food. As industrialisation and the trendy age advanced, most individuals within the West lost touch with these skills and delight of stewarding creation, leaving just the green fingered gardeners to cultivate for pleasure, and farmers to feed us using enormous machinery.
But a remnant have stayed away from cities and still live off the land. Amish and Mennonite communities are probably the most obvious example, but more recently there was a surge in interest in homesteading or smallholding, fuelled by a whole lot of idyllic social media accounts that portray an Eden-like existence. An environmentally movement called permaculture seeks to supply abundant food using labour-saving forests, which has interesting echoes of Paradise itself.
The reality of self-sufficient gardening is tougher than the fantasy, but still there are lots of Christians who’re selecting a more natural smallholding lifestyle to spend more time with their families, be more resilient to societal upheaval, or do less damage to the environment. Some of them write in regards to the relationship of those decisions to their faith.
“The more time I spend in my garden, the more I feel it was no accident the Creator first placed man and woman within the Garden of Eden,” wrote the Christian homesteader who publishes the Wholly Holy Living blog. “It was here within the Garden God intended to walk with His children; to spend time with them, developing the covenant relationship and revealing Himself to them.
“It was during a season of private toil and spiritual warfare God led me back to the garden, and there, He taught me about His character, and drew me back into beautiful fellowship with Himself. It was there in my garden I discovered peace, rest, and strength for day by day trials. Most of all, I learned that God is the Master Gardener, and only He can supply the expansion.”
Gardening with God
Author Jane Mossendew wrote a series of books about her love of gardening and the way it inspires her faith. Each plant she describes is aligned with the liturgical 12 months and the main focus of a meditation. Interesting folklore can also be discussed. She describes cultivation as if it was an incredible adventure together with her Creator.
“Gardening isn’t merely a blind sentimental nostalgia for Eden, but somewhat a positive, energetic and rugged expression of our hope, as inspired by our faith in God,” she wrote in a small booklet, ‘Gardening for God.’ “Every garden is a possible place of prayer.”
As an example, for Easter she meditated on the scabious plant, which has pretty blue flowers and is common in gardens. “Christ ransomed us but he continues to cherish us and feed us,” she wrote in ‘The crown of the 12 months: gardening with God in Eastertide and summer.’
“He is our food and cures the restlessness of our spirits, and, if we are going to heed and follow him, prevents us from becoming lost sheep. The many florets making one [scabious] flower are symbolic of the Church being the Body of Christ with as its members who’re individually pollinated by the Word and Sacraments.”
As summer dawns, we’re reminded of the spiritual highs of our lives, stuffed with light, warmth, and the fruits of the Spirit. It’s an extended time until winter, but we all know it should come again, with its reflection, grey days and repentance, mirroring the “dark night of the soul”. But in these sunnier days we might be awed by the wonder and variety of flowers, vegetables and trees, and marvel at God’s creative genius.
Heather Tomlinson is a contract journalist. Find her work at www.heathertomlinson.substack.com or on twitter @heathertomli
