Gardener was walking along a road that was lined with fields and gardens He had been tending for as long as He could remember. Those fields and gardens were lush – full of beauty and fruit from His devotion to every detail of what was living to allow them the best opportunity to become all He had planned for them. There were various and bright colors – all even more beautiful with more light. Not only were what He was planting beautiful, but they were growing tall and strong – no sense of a lack of freedom to reach higher and higher. Gardener loved His fields and gardens, and judging by their responses reflected in their beauty to his devotion, you could see they loved the Gardener.
As He continued down the road, He came across a very different garden. It was called ‘Nede’. The light that was so much a part of Gardener’s fields was nowhere to be found. He crouched down and grabbed a handful of Nede’s soil – it was rough – full of rocks and thorns and other things that would choke off the possibility for growth. As He gazed over the field, there was nothing of the color that was characteristic of Gardener’s fields. He saw dinginess – as if there was a murky gray covering over everything. Nothing appeared to be growing or flowing in the breeze – it all just seemed stuck and stunted.
Coming up from behind Him, Nede’s owner snarled to Gardener, “What are you doing here?”
Gardener politely responded, “I was just looking into your garden. I own the fields and gardens down the way.”
“I know who You are, and You are not welcome in my garden,” snapped Nede’s owner.
“Seems as if your garden is struggling – I don’t see much growth or even life.”
“It serves my purpose.” Nede sniped.
“Really – and what’s that?” Gardener asked.
“You should know – You’ve taken over a number of my fields and gardens,” pouted Nede’s owner.
“Not as many as I would like.” Gardener said with sadness in His voice. “I see what’s in your garden has deep roots. What kind of roots run so deep?”
Nede’s gardener’s face lit up with a smug and prideful smile. “There are several types – roots of bitterness, unforgiveness, and anger – to name a few. They run very, very deep. And here’s the best part, I don’t need to feed them – they feed themselves. I just need to get it started, and then it’s as if they take on a life of their own!”
“Seems like all the growth is done below – don’t you want to see some growth from above – see the potential for their original design?” Gardener inquired with passion.
“I could care less about what You think they should be like, Gardener. I have my own plan, and I like it better this way,” growled Nedes’ gardener.
Not fazed by his attitude, Gardener continued his inquiry, “What is that murky gray covering across everything?”
“That’s my special anti-fertilizer formula – I call it ‘fear’. The more I put on, the less growth above I’ll see. Moreover, it fades all those ridiculous colors I see in your fields and gardens. Everything is the same here in Nede – I like it that way. And here’s another great thing about my fear formula – I never run out of different ways to create it.”
The sorrow in Gardener’s face was becoming more apparent. He crouched down again to take a handful of soil and then asked, “What is in this?”
“That’s the best of all – I call it ‘condemnation’. If anything wants to even have a hint of trying to grow, it’s going to get caught up, strangled, and ultimately its desire cut off when trying to grow in condemnation.” At this moment, Nede’s gardener was full of pride as he looked over what he had done to all that was living in Nede. He then glared at Gardener and challenged him, “Bet you don’t know what the secret is to my condemnation soil?”
“Gardener stood up straight, stared straight into the eyes of Nede’s gardener and replied, “I already know the ingredient – it is ‘judgment’. Judgment leads to condemnation. You will find no judgment in the soil of My fields and gardens.”
Furious because of the Gardener’s knowing his ‘secret’ soil formula, snorted, “So what’s in your soil that makes everything grow in your fields and gardens?”
“Grace” Gardener said with a big smile.
“What in the world is that?”
“You’ll never know. And here’s the great thing about my soil of grace – there’s a never-ending supply of it because it comes from Me.” Gardener reached into His bag labeled ‘forgiveness’ and pulled out a handful of grace-filled soil and threw it on the ground of Nede. Suddenly, that soil started taking over the soil of judgment and spread out wide and spread down deep into Nede.
Nede’s gardener howled, “No!!!! What have you done? You grace is uprooting all my roots of bitterness, unforgiveness, and anger. It’s washing away the fear on everything! And my soil of condemnation and judgment – it’s all gone!!!! You’ve ruined another one of my gardens!!”
“I would say I rescued it with My grace. You need to leave – now.” Gardener said in authority.
Nede’s gardener had no choice but to leave. He packed up samples of his roots, anti-fertilizer, and soil and stormed off screeching – no doubt looking for another field to infect.
With Gardener’s grace-filled soil now fully taking over Nede – everything that was backwards was now getting remade into what it was designed to be. All that seemed dead or barely alive was bursting forth with beauty and new life. There was growth, and all was developing in the Light.
Gardner, again pleased, finally looked at the sign ‘Nede’ that was hung at the front of the field. “Things were truly backwards here, let’s see what this looks like if I reverse the spelling of My now grace-filled garden.”
“Eden”.