God of the Garden

In the beginning, God created...a garden. A beautiful garden with all the best that the world has to offer. He filled it with fruit and creatures and goodness, and then, He created man. But He did not just create man (and woman), He came to walk with them in His garden in the cool of the day. 

With real footsteps. The kind you could hear as the grasses rustled beneath His feet. 

We all know the story - then there was the serpent, then there was the fruit, then there was the curse, and now, there were the angels with their flaming, swinging swords, guarding the way to the garden so that we couldn't get back in and condemn ourselves to even worse. 

But the Lord our God, He never stopped loving us. He never stopped wanting to walk with us. 

From here, we usually jump to Jesus. The Son of God who put on flesh and came to walk with us once more. Or we jump to Revelation, when the angels guarding the way are removed and the whole creation is restored and the tree of life produces 12 kinds of fruit and nourishes everything. 

But between the curse and the Cross, there is another story about our God. Our God who wants to walk with us. Our God who hasn't forgotten the way He created things, the way they were supposed to be. 

Our Lover. 

Of course, we are talking about the Song of Solomon. That weird little book that seems a little too erotic to belong in the Bible. That one that makes us a little uncomfortable, as it seems that we are peeking in the window at a place that should have had its curtains closed. That book that has for years been interpreted through a lens of sexual innuendo (and for good reason). 

But what if it's not just sexual innuendo? What if it's also spiritual innuendo? 

After all, it is part of God's word to us. We are supposed to come to understand something about our Lover from this poem of love. 

And if there's one thing I think we ought to pay attention to, it's this: 

Our Lover has gone down to His garden. (6:2)

Our God, the Creator of gardens. Our God, who once walked with us. Our God, who longs to walk with us again. Our God, who loves us so deeply. Our God has gone down to His garden, to the place where it all started, to the place where it was all very good. He has gone down to His garden, and He is calling to us to join Him. 

Friends, do not forget Eden. Do not forget the created order. Do not forget the beautiful way. Do not forget the very good. 

For the Lord our God, our Lover, has gone down to that very garden, and He is waiting for us there.