Good Morning All,
Genesis 3:8; “In the cool of the evening, the man
and his wife heard the Lord God walking around in the garden. So they hid from
the Lord God among the
trees in the garden.”
My wife and
I enjoy gardening. I do the vegetables and she does the flowers. We order
different types of seeds and then proceed to grow them, or at least try to grow
them. Through the winter we look at
catalogs and websites getting ideas for what to grow. But this does not beat
actually seeing the plants actually growing. We like to see flower gardens or
even a vegetable garden with the plants flourishing and producing. We, like
many people, enjoy the peacefulness, the beauty, and the quiet time with nature.
In our verse, we can easily imagine the
beauty and the quietness of the garden as God walked in the cool of the
evening. It is safe to assume that Adam
and Eve were quiet as they tried to hide from God. Yet despite the fact that they were hiding,
God was looking for them. God was
calling to Adam and Eve. In the
quietness, God sought out his lost children calling to them to come back
home. He was noisy; trying to get them
to respond.
Many years later, we see a different
garden. It is late at night, and it is
quiet. Some of the people there are
sound asleep. Others are searching for
someone so they are moving through as quietly as they can. Off, all by himself, Jesus is praying. He prays to God, but God is quiet. Jesus is beginning to face the wrath of God
by himself. In the Garden of Gethsemane,
God was silent. His wrath left him
silent.
All for you and me, Jesus prayed in a
garden when God was silent. God was
silent because all was decided. A bill
was due; a price to be paid. The wrath
of God was poured out upon Jesus. It
started in the garden and continued on the cross. God’s silence, pouring his holy wrath on
Jesus, means God is seeking us all the time.
God is not silent about you and me.
God calls out to you and to me continually
through his Word. Because of God’s
silence in the Garden of Gethsemane, God is not silent to us. He calls us with his love and grace and
desires. He heals us as he restores
us. His grace gives us hope. He gives us hope so that we can go to the
garden and sit in peace knowing that our salvation is sure, our future proven
and our present provided for. God walks
in the garden of life with you to keep you safe. This can be the source of your great comfort
and hope. We can trust in God’s promise
to give us the victory over the devil and all his lies and attacks. God gives us peace in the garden.
Father of all
mercy, you bring me hope and peace. You
call to me that I might hear your joyous Word of comfort and grace. Keep us safe in your loving arms. Be with those who feel that you are silent to
them. Bring them the peace of your
loving mercy. Heal their pain and bring
them into your gracious kingdom. In the
precious name of Jesus we pray, amen.
God’s Peace,
Pastor Bret
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