Gardens and Cities

 May 21, 2021

Recently we had sod installed where three weeks ago there was only a pile of gravel excavated from where we built the laundry room. We’ve fertilized, watered, and tenderly cared for this new lawn so it will look nice for our granddaughter’s wedding reception I in a mere two weeks. Linda has been hard at work for the past few weeks, weeding and mulching, planting flowers, and making sure everything is just right for the big day. I must say, it looks pretty good. And it got me to thinking.

According to the Bible, our story as human beings begins in a garden (Genesis 2) and reaches its consummation in a city (Revelation 21). I’m not sure what to make of this; I’m more of a garden than a city man. To me, cities are nice to visit, but not where I want to live. Steel and concrete don’t feed my soul as does soil and flora. When we lived in Chicago, we were fortunate to be in a part of the city where we had a small yard and a couple trees, but the wail of police and fire sirens was constant, and we were never able to shut out the sound of the traffic. 

Our eldest granddaughter has been tutoring two young girls whose parents retreated from Brooklyn to Chautauqua to escape the pandemic. Last fall she brought them home to “the farm” for a field trip. The farm consists of a pig, two ducks, a few chickens, two cats and three dogs, plus the neighbor’s goats. The girls had never seen any of these animals face to face, except cats and dogs. They came over to our place in the afternoon and for the first time in their lives swam in a creek. On another visit, we pressed apples for cider, and this spring they got a close up education visiting my bees. I know people who cannot imagine not being immersed in art galleries, museums, concert and theater venues, and fine dining, but I can do all that if I want, and still live where I can smell the new mown hay on a June morning, and listen to the peepers and watch the fireflies in the evening.

And there’s Linda’s gardens. Just walking through them has a way of releasing a day’s tension. It’s easy for me to see how our story begins walking with God in such a place. But it’s the city part that bothers me. The city of God, the New Jerusalem coming down from heaven, is the Revelator’s vision of our future, but why? There is only one answer that comes to mind: the first city recorded in the Bible is Babylon (Genesis 11), a place known for its pride and rebellion, so much so that it’s name is almost synonymous with antagonism to God. It was a den of iniquity, as Obi Wan Kenobi said to Luke Skywalker about the Mos Eisely spaceport, “You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy.”

In contrast to the city of Man is the city of God, a place of light, life, and beauty. Every tear is wiped away, and songs of praise are heard instead of shouts of anger and wails of pain. I still prefer our gardens, but if the City of God is even remotely as wonderful as John says, I guess I could live there. Actually, I know I could, because there, the dwelling place of God is with us eternally, and the Lamb is on the throne. What a day, glorious day that will be!