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I confess that gardening isn't among my favourite pastimes, but I love looking at other people's efforts and seeing the different plants as the seasons change. In the back garden of my childhood home we had an apple tree, a plum tree and some blackcurrant bushes as well as flowers. I have a favourite big park in Wales which has a botanical corner kept in immaculate condition. On one visit I saw two large terracotta pots containing two slim trees - and they had beautiful ripe lemons on them!
The first man and woman, Adam and Eve, lived in a garden. It was called Eden and was a very beautiful place (see Genesis chapter 2 verses 8 to 17). Unfortunately they ate some fruit from the one tree which God had expressly forbidden them to touch. The result? All their descendants, every one, were born with the ability to choose wrong over right, or "sin", and eventually die.
Now we must turn to the New Testament. There are some great words of Jesus, our Redeemer, in John chapter 15 verses 1 to 10. Jesus likens Himself to a vine, with all of us being its branches (and twigs!) and His Heavenly Father the gardener. Any branch that does not produce good fruit - delicious sweet grapes - must be pruned and removed. After that it is useless and eventually thrown onto a bonfire.
If you accept Jesus Christ as the one and only perfect person who died so that you could be forgiven for your sins, you must try to behave as He commanded (continue John 15 verses 11 to 17). Otherwise you will either produce uneatable fruit or no fruit at all, and you will be forever apart from the Great Gardener in charge of all the fruit trees.
While we are in John's gospel, it is interesting to note (chapter 20 verses 14 to 16) that Jesus was mistaken for a gardener by Mary Magdalene. Mary went to Jesus' tomb and found it empty. He had risen from death and was standing nearby. Jesus is and always will be "the vine", and we must make sure that we are always attached to Him, producing good fruit - that is, living the right way according to God's Word.
