Lexham Press
ISBN 978 1 68359 742 1
Price £16.99
258 pages
I love this book, as will any Christian who is fond of gardening. We have a garden and an allotment and enjoy the balance between the seasons: resting, preparing, planting and harvesting. It is lovely to eat something on most days of the year that we have grown.
Summer raspberries, courgettes and beans, potatoes, leeks and Swiss chard for most of the year, and brussel sprouts and parsnips for Christmas Day.
These gentle musings on winter, spring, summer and autumn combine a journal of the day-to-day experiences of gardening with helpful reflections on what it means to garden with God, by meditating on the spiritual lessons attached to working the soil.
I guess that part of our affinity to gardening is due to where we all come from. Human beings were first created with the stuff of the soil; we are all a combination of dust and glory.
Adam the first man was a gardener, and we have been cultivating the earth ever since. Jesus used lots of horticultural images in his teaching; we can learn a lot of spiritual lessons by considering the flowers of the field and the persistence of weeds!
John Woods is a writer and Bible teacher based in West Sussex. He is Director of Training at the School of Preachers in Riga, Latvia.
