Human Beings as Gardeners

Human Beings as Gardeners
Genesis 2: 8-14

Where I grew up as a toddler in Birmingham, England, my father grew potatoes. Then, when I was at junior school we had a plum tree, and when I was at secondary school we had two apple trees. When I taught at seminary in Nottingham, I grew tomatoes and lettuce and cauliflower when we lived at our first house, and then strawberries and raspberries and radishes at our second; at our third house we also had a pear tree, a peach tree, and various fruit bushes. In Pasadena, California, like many people we have only a patio, and I haven’t grown anything. (Well, to be truthful, we have a grapefruit tree and an orange tree in pots, but they have produced only about six pieces of fruit over eleven years.) It means I am rather less of a human being, because we were made to be gardeners. It is another aspect of being in God’s image. The first thing God does after shaping the first human being is plant the first orchard and vegetable garden...