“The world … is a gorgeous old place … which has enough textures, tastes, and smells to keep us intrigued for more time than we have. Unfortunately, however, our response to its loveliness is not always delight: It is, far more often than it should be, boredom. And that is not only odd, it is tragic; for boredom is not neutral – it is the fertilizing of unloveliness.” – The Supper of the Lamb by Robert Farrar Capon
All my life, I’ve struggled to understand beauty. For me, or anyone like me, it can be easy to blame practicality for this … boredom. Why is a mountain awe-inspiring? Isn’t it just a pile of rocks? What about the change of autumn leaves? I’ve lived this long without seeing those colors (everything looks green and brown to me) how necessary can they be? And food? It keeps me alive. Why must I care how it tastes?
To this last question, naturally my mealtime prayers aren’t overflowing with gratitude, especially when food is only seen as fuel, which scares me.
“For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse. For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened.” – Romans 1:20-21
So, I spent a couple of years praying. Thankfully we worship a Father who sows seeds in our hearts, regardless of its rocky or thorny nature. It’s because of His nature I know He was already working in me. It just took starting my own garden to see it. That’s what I’d like to share with you today: How God is redeeming my perception of beauty.
You could probably guess at this point that my original intent with gardening was purely practical. To save money and achieve self-sufficiency. It sounded like a no-brainer since plants basically grow themselves, right in my own backyard!
Well, I was wrong about some things. When you don’t know what you’re doing, you spend more than you earn, lots of things die, and it’s more work than you thought you were signing up for. But I was committed to the labor, the early mornings, and to learning all that I could.
A couple of months into my first gardening season, on one cool spring day, I was surprised by a call into the garden—not to ensure the productivity of my investment, but simply to sit and watch these things grow. It was there that God opened my eyes to see just how much He is doing. He isn’t sitting on His throne, idle. He is here, laboring in this garden that is our world.
And isn’t it like Him to work quietly – not demanding our attention, waiting patiently for us to notice He is here?
I’ve found Him hiding behind the petals of the zinnia, dressing this flower in such a way that says, “I love you.” I see Him turning the head of the sunflower and sending the pollinators for the flourishing of life. He amasses an army of bacteria to deliver nutrients to the plant’s roots and raises the worms to work the soil. He sends the rain that hose water simply can’t equate to.
And when it’s all said and done, He presents a harvest that makes the store-bought pale in comparison. No wonder “all of creation sings His praise.”
I’ve learned that in the garden I get to partner with God and His creation to nurture the things that nurture us; then bring them to the Altar that he made into a Table; that we might come together and consume these things that had to die, so that we might live.
So, I no longer value productivity in my garden. Instead gardening is simply an act of worship (1 Corinthians 10:31). But, there is still much to be said – like another familiar story the garden is only the beginning.
When we appreciate that the whole of creation manifests God’s primordial hospitality, God making room for the world and then nurturing it into life, we can also see that the many dimensions of our eating can be a daily testimony to the love of God. Eating is the occasion through which we discover that we are creatures nestled within multiple memberships of creations altogether dependent on our creator God. It is a time when we honor, nurture, and celebrate membership. When we eat together, we share in God’s hospitable life. More exactly, we recognize, receive, and then extend to others the gifts of life that God so graciously gives.
“Food is the daily sacrament of unnecessary goodness, ordained for a continual remembrance that the world will always be more delicious than it is useful.” – The Supper of the Lamb by Robert Farrar Capon
If you’re anything like me, or even if you aren’t, I encourage you to resist the urge to be bored with the beautiful, tasty world that He delighted to create and share with us. Rather seek and you will find that He is already working. Watch Him work. Partner with Him if you can spare some time. If for no other purpose, that your worship might be enriched by knowledge of what He is doing in all things, always. I encourage you to wrestle with this, as I have. I assure you it’s worth your time. And if you’re still wondering where to start, why not a garden?
Nathan Schultz
Nathan is part of our Christ’s Church family, and he and his wife, Kelsey, one of our receptionists, are involved in small groups. Nathan loves soccer, video games, and, alongside gardening himself, helping friends get their gardens started. He’s a self-proclaimed hobby hopper, having tried his hand at everything from whittling and woodworking to reading, game design, and writing.
