Home At Last In God’s Beautiful Garden

Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, as clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb.
Revelation 22:1

Throughout history gardens have been the scenes of significant life-and-death struggles. In a garden Eve made a decision that bore the fruit of death. In a garden the Savior agonized over a decision that would mean life eternal for all who believed.

John Henry Jowett probes the significance of that fateful night in a garden called Gethsemane.

WALK WITH JOHN HENRY JOWETT
“The Bible opens with a garden. It closes with a garden. The first is the Paradise that was lost. The last is paradise regained.

“Between the two there is a third, the garden of Gethsemane. And it is through the unspeakable bitterness and desolation of Gethsemane that we find again the glorious garden through which flows ‘the river of the water of life’ (Revelation 22:1).

“Without Gethsemane, no new Jerusalem! Without its mysterious and unfathomable night, no blessed sunrise of eternal hope!

“Can I forget Gethsemane? Yes, I can; and in the forgetfulness I lose the sacred awe of my redemption, and I miss the real glory of ‘paradise regained.’

“ ‘You are not your own; you were bought at a price’ (1 Corinthians 6:19-20). That is the remembrance that keeps the spirit lowly, and that fills the heart with love for him ‘whose I am,’ and whom I ought to serve.”

WALK CLOSER TO GOD
Eden … Gethsemane … the new Jerusalem. The journey has been costly and difficult. Yet through it all, God’s purposes triumph.

His grace, his goodness, his Gethsemane have made it possible for you to dwell in the garden of God—forever. A garden in which there is no curse or darkness, only face-to-face fellowship with the Creator.

To forget such a gift might seem unthinkable. To understand fully such a gift—unfathomable. To spend this day thanking him for it—unbeatable!