How Did Your Garden Grow?

We received an email recently telling us that the community garden in which we share a plot with reader Brian is officially kaput. We were given a stay of execution for this summer and wondered if there would be another but the note told us to clear out anything we had left in our plots because the fences were coming down soon. So, on a glorious Monday afternoon we cut the last of the chard, pulled out the tomato cages and bid a fond farewell. For a couple of seasons we enjoyed a well organized community garden with rich organic soil. I mentioned before that it is disappearing so that a new French immersion school can be built, so it is a worthy cause. It's just sad that this garden must go. Ruth took a couple of parting photographs for posterity.

Christianity is a "gardeny" faith. Our story begins in the garden of Genesis, Jesus is encountered as the risen Christ in a garden, and there is a city garden at the end of Revelation. There is a thoughtful little book called The Fragrance of God by Vigen Guroian which includes a chapter The Ecological Garden, as well as a a devotional book called Your Spiritual Garden. Metaphors of steady growth and tending fit with the development of the spiritual life.

Are you a gardener? How did your garden grow this season? Do you see the connections between that growth and spiritual nurture?