It’s the eve of the first frost in Wisconsin, and it looks like it has a good chance of being a freeze-out. I was pretty frustrated with this year’s short growing season as I rescued a wheelbarrow full of green tomatoes in the soaking cold fall rain. Today I experienced the toil and thorns of the fall. Yesterday was a different story. Tilling a new strawberry patch and prairie plot, I marveled at how much my fallow farm field had changed in the past eight years. For the first few years that we owned our house, the acre that had not been seeded in lawn was wild with weeds. Through hard work and perseverance, I slowly conquered the weeds and began to plant gardens and prairie. I am now cultivating the back part of the acre.

As I surveyed how the land was slowly growing in beauty and in in its ability to serve our needs, I couldn’t help to think of Eden. How beautiful it must have been to work in God’s garden with perfect knowledge of Creation. Adam & Eve knew where to plant each plant so that it would best serve humanity and Creation. They worked with nature instead of against her, cooperating with God’s Creative Power to participate in His Divine Life. How sweet the fruit of their labor must have tasted!

Even in this fallen world, we are still invited to participate in God’s Creative Power to complete and perfect creation. The difference is that now we have to overcome a fallen world. Our relationship with creation has been damaged by sin. Our knowledge about creation is also clouded. Most of the time I have no idea if I’m doing the right thing to make my plants grow. I am now facing a suddenly shortened growing period. It’s frustrating sometimes, but mostly gardening is a beautiful reminder of God’s invitation to participate in His love expressed through creation.

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