On Earth as in Ireland, Pt. 5

Part 0 (The Dream) — Part 1 (The Fog) — Part 2 (The Hike) — Part 3 (The Colors) — Part 4 ( The Flu) — Part 5 (The Flowers) — Part 6 (The Cathedrals) — Part 7 (The Rest)

I mentioned at Cassie’s memorial services that we always wanted to have a nice garden. On the one hand a garden is just a bunch of plants and dirt. So, we could tell ourselves it was enough to be content to have just a few herbs, flowers, and potted trees on our patio. But we dreamed of more. I liked flowers and the idea of using them to design a space in our future that was relaxing, beautiful, balanced, and colorful. Cassie thought it was a better idea to grow things that are actually useful. She wanted to sow seeds in the dirt and watch them grow into big ripening fruits, nutritious vegetables, and tasty, useful herbs. But whether it was my way or hers, what we loved most about the idea was devoting a piece of land just for life—either displaying the living things that show beauty or displaying the living things that sustain us. Gardening could be an embodiment of the picture the Bible paints of God’s relationship to his people. We loved this symbolism, God as gardener and his people the plants that are so well cared for.

He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners… to comfort all who mourn, and provide for those who grieve in Zion—to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of joy instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair. They will be called oaks of righteousness, a planting of the Lord for the display of his splendor…

For as the soil makes the sprout come up and a garden causes seeds to grow, so the Sovereign Lord will make righteousness and praise spring up before all nations.

Isaiah 61

Back in April, I picked up a new hobby. While going to a conference just outside Washington D.C. I decided to take some time to visit the U.S. Botanic Garden next to the Smithsonian Museums. Unless you count the zoos or EPCOT, I had never been to professionally managed collections of flowers, shrubs, trees, cacti, or really anything like what was in D.C. There was a magnolia tree with blossoms so big they wouldn’t be able to fit in my arms. There were cacti and succulents galore. And there was a rose garden. I’d never cared for roses before. But this one I could smell long before it came into sight. And when I did see it—I don’t know how—I just fell in love with roses, with the shades of pink and red, with the purity in the white roses, and especially with the happy blooms of the yellow ones. There were more than I could’ve imagined possible. I didn’t want to leave the place. But when I tore myself away, I was content knowing I had a new special interest.

When my friends and I arrived in Zurich on the way to Ireland, I dragged my friends out of the airport to the Zurich University botanical garden right next to the train station in the heart of the city. Of course we did plenty of other Zurich-y things you can do in 5-6 hours: visit a centuries old church, ogle the expensive cars on every street, taste some of the best chocolate in Europe, and practice all the German we knew (danke very much). But my highlight was the garden. That’s a lie, it was actually the chocolate.

When we got to Dublin, I spent the first few hours of a day around St. Stephen’s Green after missing a bus. It was an island of greenery, right smack dab in the middle of the city. That same day I went to a spot crowded with things I wanted to see—Dublin Castle, Chester Beatty Library (housing some of the oldest papyri fragments of the New Testament), and the Famine Art Museum—which I found out was centered around a stunning garden and landscape.

When we arrived in Belfast, I was ecstatic over the fact that the city’s botanic garden was less than a 5-minute walk from where we were staying. Even though I came down with that nasty cold, I still was determined to go see the massive gardens. I regrettably captured some crummy pictures of it, but there was a rose garden twice the size of the one in D.C.

If I was happy for the gardens of the other cities, I was over the moon to visit those in London. There were the cloister gardens maintained around the cathedrals. There were the ones brightening up Buckingham Palace and other government landmarks. There were the peaceful and tranquil gardens kept within parks, like the Kyoto Garden in Holland Park. And then there was Kew Gardens—this kind of art on that kind of scale was more amazing to me than anything displayed in London’s National Gallery.

Gardens are joyful. They are peaceful. They are natural and free. They are place to recover and feel renewed. They are full of life. The image evoked in the Book of Isaiah, mentioned above, portrays a ministry of healing for the brokenhearted, of freedom for the captive, and of comfort for the grieving. As it says, “to bestow a crown of beauty instead of ashes, an oil of joy instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair.” This is the ministry of Jesus. It is how Jesus continues to minister to me, even as I walk in circles around a bunch of plants and dirt.

The scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to [Jesus]. Unrolling it, he found the place where it is written:

“The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”

The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on him. He began by saying to them, “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”

Luke 4

P.S.

If any kind of maintained and manicured landscape counts as a kind of garden, I should include a picture from Stamford Bridge stadium here too. I’m not even a Blues fan and I was excited, so I’m sure Cassie would have loved it. I mean, she did play collegiate soccer after all!

Part 0 (The Dream) — Part 1 (The Fog) — Part 2 (The Hike) — Part 3 (The Colors) — Part 4 ( The Flu) — Part 5 (The Flowers) — Part 6 (The Cathedrals) — Part 7 (The Rest)