Comments on: Falls, Gardens, Deaths

By: harold b. curtis

harold b. curtis — Tue, 20 Dec 2005 06:12:53 +0000

Adam thank you for these tender petals from your life. Such sacred ground from your garden causes us to tread ever so lightly upon such acreage. I stop with silent pause to reflect upon the many gardens that impact all our lives.

A garden called Eden, where the debate of life and death was waged and heaven and earth was weighed in the balance. A place where immortality was exchanged for mortality and death. In that garden Adam and Eve were to dress it, but they could not dress it with the laughter of children, nor the gentle hugs of their embrace. That only came with weeds, and sweaty brows. It was to be had only through pain, aging, sorrow, choices and accountability, death. Tiny hugs at the cost of immortality. It would seem a great cost, were it not for another garden.

The Garden of Gethesemane, filled with ancient olive trees, trees from which the sacred oil was taken. An oil of blessing, an oil of anointing, an oil of healing. Such oil in its purest state is said to be virgin, undilluted, untainted. To such a grove comes The Son of God, to do His work, to pay His price, to pull heaven and earth together and with infinite sacrifice to work an alchemy upon man, turning scarlet red to drifting snow white. Such tilling by perfect hands, such shoulders to strain in the yoke, such fertilizing blood in a Garden called Gethsemane.

The Garden of Golgatha, newly hewn, where never man had laid, there laid they the Lord. Entombed within the rock, His lifeless body bruised and drained by infinite agony, and mortal brutalization lay in witness to mans inhumanity to man, and Gods love for even such fallen humanity. Then the door stone rolls aside, light breaks into the shadows of the piercing blackness and a flood more brilliant then a thousand noons lights the lives of all mankind with strobing hope and flaring mercy. Praise be to God, The Christ is risen, and from that despairing Garden Tomb beneath Golgothas merciless brow, grows a new flower that ever shall bloom in eternity.

Merry Christmas
Harold B. Curtis

By: J. Stapley

J. Stapley — Mon, 19 Dec 2005 21:28:47 +0000

Thanks, Adam.

By: Visorstuff

Visorstuff — Mon, 19 Dec 2005 20:34:40 +0000

I hit return and it posted prior to my finishing my thoughts:

It is amazing to think what kind of things we can understand through such simple acts as gardening. Very thoughful post.

By: Visorstuff

Visorstuff — Mon, 19 Dec 2005 20:32:51 +0000

Wasn’t gardening part of Nibley’s â€œGreat Triple Combination” as cited by Russell Arben Fox here: http://www.timesandseasons.org/?p=2650?

He wrote: Hugh Nibley, citing D&C 26:1, called farming part of the â€œGreat Triple Combinationâ€?: â€œstudying the scripturesâ€¦preachingâ€¦[and] performing your labors on the land.â€?

By: The Wiz

The Wiz — Mon, 19 Dec 2005 16:51:37 +0000

I’m wracking my brain to remember who said it, and maybe I’ll come up with it eventually, but one of my favorite quotes is “When you understand the cycle of gardening, you understand the cycle of life.” I probably paraphrased something awful, but the concept is there. I think of it every time my mums die and come back, or every time I care for two plants exactly the same way, and one dies, and the other thrives.

By: greenfrog

greenfrog — Mon, 19 Dec 2005 16:24:08 +0000

thanks

By: Russell Arben Fox

Russell Arben Fox — Mon, 19 Dec 2005 13:02:21 +0000

Life and death, fields flourishing and fields laying fallow (but only for a short season), all bound together in faith, hope, and love. Thank you, Adam, for this early Christmas gift. This is the finest and wisest post I have read in a long time.

In case I don’t remember to say it later, my love and best wishes for this (perhaps difficult) holiday season to you and Sara and Emma.

By: gst

gst — Mon, 19 Dec 2005 04:05:45 +0000

Those are two lovely girls.