The chilly morning was full of promise. Listening to a bubbling creek, I watched curious ground squirrels scampering near my seat. When a single red-tailed hawk began making lazy circles in the sky high above the canyon walls, my playful squirrels dove for cover. Surprisingly, in this idyllic setting, I was doing homework.
Quietly, I had paid my entrance fee into the arboretum. The book bag that swung over my shoulder stored my Bible, a pen, a journal, some trail-mix, and a water bottle. I hiked down a shaded path and began searching for a place of serenity.
Adventuring across a swaying bridge, I climbed a hiking trail south of Queen Creek. In the shadow of a deep cliff, I found my isolated bench. Here the water’s melody muted the voices of the other park visitors; but from my vantage point, I was clearly visible to those across the divide. I had made the journey to Boyce Thompson Arboretum to complete a seminary class assignment.
Since August, I had been practicing the spiritual discipline of solitude for my class. Now it was March, and I was trying for the first time to spend two full days alone with God. Knowing it is easier for me to hear God speak in nature, I longed to pick an outdoor setting for my extended retreat. Yet, physical safety was one of my goals as I prayed about where to spend this extended time of listening. As a woman, I wanted to be wise. I knew I didn’t want to pick a remote mountain trail where no one would hear a cry for help.
I was also searching for some anonymity. As a native Tucsonan and a pastor’s wife, it is difficult for me to visit anywhere in Tucson without running into someone who knows me. So the commute to Boyce Thompson felt like the perfect solution. At the end of the day when the park closed, I planned to get a hotel in nearby Globe, Arizona and then I would return the next morning to complete my second day of silence at the arboretum. My desire was not to be a legalist about the need for solitude; instead, I was trying to cultivate some space so my spirit could thrive.
When I first ventured into the park, under a canopy of ancient trees, I had no idea how restorative this exercise would be for me. I was just trying to complete a seminary assignment in the middle of a busy semester. From the witness of creation God refreshed me and renewed my strength. He also reminded me of the wonderful benefits of visiting a kept garden.
You will remember the Bible teaches that life began in a garden. Instinctively we know this. All of us know in our hearts that just like Adam and Eve, we were designed to live in paradise. It is this instinctual knowledge which offends us when our lives hit a big bump in the road. Somehow deep within us, we all know a perfect garden is where we belong, and it is why our emotions can be so intense when we suffer.
In the first book of the Bible, Genesis, we learn it wasn’t just any garden Adam and Eve were given. It was a kept garden. Remember that a kept garden is built and designed by someone who did the backbreaking labor before we arrived to enjoy it. Adam and Eve thrived in the Garden of Eden. And while their assignments in the garden were deeply purposeful, it was never a curse for them to work there.
It is interesting to note that the Hebrew word translated “paradise” in the book of Genesis means “a walled garden.” Now a garden is usually walled for two reasons. One is for privacy and the second is protection. Privacy is significant if you want to enjoy an outdoor room without the fear of intrusion, so a garden might be walled for privacy. Secondly, a garden might be walled to protect the inhabitants from marauders or from animal critters who might try stealing the produce of the land.
However we imagine it, the Garden of Eden was a place of paradise. Like Boyce Thompson Arboretum, we were first designed to live in a kept garden, but something happened there. The Garden of Eden was filled with every fruit and vegetable you can imagine. God had only one request from Adam and Eve, “but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat…” (Gen. 2:17a). But, they saw that it looked good to eat, and so they rebelled and ate the one forbidden fruit.
Maybe they didn’t think it was a big deal, but their rebellion unleashed a terrible destruction upon the earth. That fruit was the only thing God had withheld from them, and as occurs in all forms of rebellion, relationships were destroyed. With their hurtful actions, Adam and Eve broke God’s heart. Theologians call this act of rebellion the “Fall of Man.” When faced with this broken relationship, God cursed the ground, the earth. Adam was told he would now have to farm the land by the sweat of his brow if he or his family were to eat. God’s curse on the earth was to be a sign of man’s broken relationship with God.
Paul talks about this even in the New Testament in Romans 8:19-21. Paul says that since the time when the earth was cursed all of creation has been groaning for the children of God to be revealed.
Creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God. ESV
Paul is teaching that creation was subject to decay when Adam and Eve rebelled against God in the garden. Before the Fall of Man, roses didn’t wilt and plants did not decay. What Paul is emphasizing in this passage, is that creation has been waiting in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed. When the earth sees the revelation of God’s children she knows it won’t be long before she, too, will be liberated from her bondage to decay. Isaiah 35, the passage we have been digging into for the last two lessons, is a prophecy vividly describing the restoration of the human race to God and the future restoration of creation. Specifically, Isaiah 35 is describing what the desert is going to look like when she has been set free from the curse, which was placed on her when Adam and Eve rebelled in the Garden of Eden.
In lesson two, we learned the spiritual significance of how the Hebrews wrote poetry. In today’s
teaching we see the seriousness of the prophecy in this passage. Isaiah 35 is a prophecy about
Jesus’ second coming when miraculously the blessings of Eden will once again be restored. The
desire to dwell in paradise is a universal thirst. This yearning to return to Eden is evidence of our
deeper need to be restored to God. Isaiah 35 is written in two different literary styles, poetry and
prophecy.
Consider some of the critical points made in this lesson.
1) Life began in a garden. The Bible teaches that humans were designed to live in paradise. Have you ever been frustrated because your life was not a bed of roses? Explain.
2) Have you ever attributed your frustration to the Fall of Man? Why?
Garden Challenge: Before you continue on with the next lesson, carve out some time to visit a kept garden. Pack your Bible, a pen, paper, and a water bottle. Try to go alone and find an isolated spot to read Isaiah 35 again. If you are busy with young children, go to a park with a playground where you can keep a steady eye on your children. Pick a place where they will safely be entertained and leave you free for a moment of contemplation. Gently start to notice the sky, the trees, the birds, or anything unique about this garden.
1) What stands out today about Isaiah 35 that you missed before this garden reading?
2) Did your visit to a kept garden refresh you? And if so, in what ways were you refreshed?
