My Faith in Gardens
By Steve Mydelski
What If Mary Was Right?
In the Gospel of John, just after the resurrection, Mary Magdalene comes to the tomb weeping. She sees a man standing nearby and mistakes him for the gardener.
“She, supposing him to be the gardener…” — John 20:15 (KJV)
But what if she wasn’t wrong?
What if Jesus is the gardener—not just in that moment, but in every moment? What if the one who rose from the grave did so in a garden because the garden has always been God’s design for how we live, how we see, and how we care?
This is a personal confession. It’s a theological conviction. It’s the story of my faith in gardens.
1. The First Vocation: Tending and Keeping
The Bible does not begin with a building or a pulpit. It begins with a garden.
“And the LORD God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it.” — Genesis 2:15
In the original Hebrew, the words are ʿābad (“to serve, cultivate”) and šāmar (“to keep, guard”). This was humanity’s first calling—priestly stewardship of a living garden.
We were not placed in the garden to dominate it. We were placed there to observe, tend, and protect. Not to mulch and mow, but to nurture and guard.
2. The Earth Belongs to God
Scripture is crystal clear: the earth is not ours. It was never ours. We are tenants, not landlords.
“The earth is the LORD’S, and the fulness thereof.” — Psalm 24:1
“The land shall not be sold for ever: for the land is mine.” — Leviticus 25:23
This is a worldview we’ve largely forgotten. We treat the land as a resource. But God sees it as inheritance—a living trust handed down through generations, to be stewarded with wisdom and reverence.
3. God’s Law Wrote Mercy into the Land
In Israel’s agrarian laws, we see the very heart of God: not just justice, but design—a kind of divine ecology.
• The land must rest:
“In the seventh year thou shalt let it rest… that the poor… may eat.” — Exodus 23:11
• The harvest must leave room for others:
“Thou shalt not wholly reap the corners of thy field… thou shalt leave them for the poor and stranger.” — Leviticus 19:9–10
• Even animals are to be honored:
“A righteous man regardeth the life of his beast.” — Proverbs 12:10
The law of God wasn’t just about how we live with each other. It was about how we live with the earth.
4. Design as Stewardship: Seeing, Understanding, Then Tending
God didn’t just give us the land—He gave us the patterns within it.
“Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow…” — Matthew 6:28
Jesus doesn’t just tell us to admire the lilies. He tells us to consider them. To pay attention. To observe.
Every relationship in the garden is a teaching:
• Monarchs and milkweed.
• Goldfinches and echinacea.
• Soil and seed.
• Water and root.
• Light and bloom.
If we do not observe what God has created, we cannot design faithfully. And if we do not design faithfully, we cannot steward fruitfully.
This is the gardener’s path: to see what God has revealed, to understand the divine pattern, and then to design in alignment with that truth.
Design is not manipulation. It’s interpretation. It’s reading God’s creation and responding with care.
“Let all things be done decently and in order.” — 1 Corinthians 14:40
When we place plants where they can thrive, when we make space for birds and pollinators, when we restore what has been stripped—we are practicing theology with our hands.
5. Jesus and the Garden
Jesus taught in the language of gardens. He spoke of seeds and vines, of branches and fruit, of lilies and mustard plants. He died in a garden. He rose in a garden. And it was in a garden that he was first mistaken—rightly—as the gardener.
“Behold the fowls of the air… your heavenly Father feedeth them. Consider the lilies…” — Matthew 6:26, 28
“Who then is that faithful and wise steward…?” — Luke 12:42
“Unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required.” — Luke 12:48
Jesus taught that stewardship was not just an earthly practice—it was a spiritual calling. And gardens were his favorite canvas.
6. From Garden to Garden: A Vision of Redemption
The Bible begins in a garden. It ends in a garden.
“In the midst of the street… was there the tree of life… and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.” — Revelation 22:2
And there’s judgment in between:
“And shouldest destroy them which destroy the earth.” — Revelation 11:18
God’s final vision is not of concrete or commerce. It’s of a river, a tree, a city, and a healed creation. The garden is not background—it’s destiny.
7. Where We Went Wrong—and Where We Begin Again
Today, we don’t tend gardens. We install landscapes. We bury our soil in fabric and dyed mulch. We plant boxwoods and hydrangeas like decor. And we wonder where the butterflies went.
But stewardship starts with attention. It starts with humility. It starts with someone seeing how the light moves across the land, how the bees choose their blooms, how the soil smells in spring.
When we return to the garden—not just as hobbyists but as disciples—we remember who we are. We remember what God gave us.
And maybe we remember that Mary’s mistake was no mistake at all.
Let Us Pray and Plant
I believe in gardens.
I believe God still walks in them.
And I believe we are still being asked to tend them.
Let us design with care.
Let us steward with reverence.
Let us keep the faith—and keep the garden.