There Was a Garden

Then they took the body of Jesus, and wound it in linen clothes with the spices, as the manner of the Jews is to bury. Now in the place where he was crucified there was a garden; and in the garden a new sepulchre, wherein was never man yet laid. There laid they Jesus therefore because of the Jews' preparation day; for the sepulchre was nigh at hand. John 19:40-42.

"To a deep-seeing eye like that of John, this proximity was more than a coincidence. John felt that there was an inward harmony between the garden and the cross. The cross was the crowning service of Christ's life. It was love going to the uttermost. It was the final and voluntary sacrifice for the salvation and service of the world. And to John it was no mere coincidence that in the place of that supreme surrender there should be the fragrance and the blossoming of flowers. One might have thought to find a desert there. One might have counted on a bleak and dreary scene. What struck the mystical eye of the apostle was that everything was the opposite of that. Christ died. He gave Himself for men. He poured out His life in full surrender--and in the place where this all happened was a garden."

~~From Meditations on the Gospels, by George H. Morrison.

As Spring brushes our cheeks with her sweetness and blesses us with the fresh smells and sights of her beauty; as we go about our digging and planting in the fresh warm earth with the hope of soon coming blossoms, let's remember that in the place where our Savior was crucified there was a garden. Let's remember that in that garden there was a sepulchre, and that our precious Lord was buried there. But let us remember most of all that it was in that garden that He arose from the dead, conquering death for you and for me, and that He lives forevermore. Hallelujah.