By Rev. Ronald Jansen
I was sitting on the backyard patio last night after supper. The St. Cardinals were on TV and Becky makes poor company when the Cards are losing. Since my Brewers had already lost I would have been left with little other choice than to root for the Indians to beat the Cardinals. You can see that the backyard was the best place to be. Cardinal fans take their baseball even more seriously than we Packer fans take our beloved green and gold.
So I took along some books on I Samuel and worked on the sermon text for next Sunday, the story of David and Goliath. I read whatever insights others had on this well known story of David slaying the giant. If you haven’t read the story since your days in Sunday school, I would encourage you to do so, read it thoroughly and slowly. The story contains humor, cowardice, sibling conflict and the ridiculous prospect of a teenager with a sling shot going up against a giant monster protected by the latest in body armor and high tech weaponry.
Every once in a while I would look up toward the north end of our yard where I have a shade garden of numerous hostas, impatiens, geraniums, a dogwood, day lilies and more. This garden grows in the shade of oak trees, one in my yard and others in the neighbors’ yards.
Vigen Guroian, in Inheriting Paradise, quotes Henry Mitchell, who wrote in his book One Man’s Garden, “It is extremely important for the gardener to think it is a fair substitute for Eden.” I’m not sure I agree with Mitchell. I would rather express it that the gardener strive for and once in a while attains a bit of a preview of paradise. It can never be a substitute for Eden because I’m also contending with wild ginger, honey suckle sprouts and a variety of other unwanted flora.
Then I noticed a sound, not the traffic on Lindberg only a block away, but the hooting of an owl. Squirrels darted about. Other birds flitted through the air. Our house and yard was a microcosm of our life in Christ here on earth. The peacefulness and beauty of a garden and God’s creation gives us a preview of the hope we have in Christ that is ours and yet is awaiting us in the heavenly places. In the meantime we do battle, the Cardinals against the Indians, David versus Goliath, and the gardener striving against the weeds. However, in the midst of the battle we have the peace of Christ that passes all understanding in which we trust for our salvation.
One day all the David versus Goliath battles will be over. We will no more strive against the weeds. As for the Cardinals, I suspect their fans will always go from elation to devastation with little help in sight.
Comments