Christmas. Ninth day. Easter comes.

Reading God On Mute by Pete Greig. Revelatory walk through the events of Easter as he engages with 'the silence of unanswered prayer'.

I have arrived at Easter Sunday with Mary Magdalene at the tomb. And Pete says: 'The Earth has quaked and angels worship, but He Himself is mistaken for a humble, bumbling horticulturalist with dirt beneath his fingernails at the start of a working day.'

The start. The start of a new agreement between God and man where, because of Jesus, there is peace in the garden. It really is God starting over again.

In the beginning, God, the Master Gardener, created the Garden of Earth. He brought the soil, the rocks and stones, created the hills and valleys, brought in plants and the animals which lived there. Added lighting to suit the mood. A macroscopic version of an entry into the garden competition of the Chelsea Flower Show.

Then Man and Woman spoilt it, and we've been living in the mud and mess ever since.

So how fitting that Jesus appears as a Gardener in the new world he has created. He brings His life-giving Spirit to grow his garden.

As for us? We are plants to be loved and nurtured by Him, growing into full maturity, blooming under His tender care. But we are also gardeners, working under the Master Gardener, getting cracks in our palms and dirt under our nails.

Just as He did.

And so we celebrate Christmas, when the Promise came and the New Thing began...
See, I am doing a new thing!
    Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?
I am making a way in the wilderness
    and streams in the wasteland

God is cultivating the garden of my soul...as I read Pete's book about suffering and unanswered prayer in my wasteland...but that's another story.