Garden & River Series: Article 3 of 6
The Gardener’s Image
Before kings ruled or prophets spoke, God bent low and formed — the Hebrew yatsar (Genesis 2 :7) means “to shape like clay.”
Then He planted (nāṭaʿ) a garden in Eden and placed humanity there “to work it and keep it” (Genesis 2 :15).
Those verbs — ʿābad (to serve, to cultivate) and šāmar (to guard, to watch) — become humanity’s first vocation.
Work was worship before it was labor.
To tend was to honor the Gardener whose image we bear.
When we create, restore, or protect, we echo His rhythm.
We prune what hinders fruit, water what thirsts, and rest between harvests.
Even our failures compost into wisdom.
And when Mary Magdalene, weeping in the half-light of resurrection morning, mistook Jesus for “the gardener” (John 20 :15), heaven smiled.
She wasn’t wrong.
The One who planted Eden had entered the tomb and begun to cultivate new creation from within death’s soil.
The River and the Temple
Centuries before that dawn, the prophet Ezekiel saw water seeping from beneath the temple threshold (Ezekiel 47:1).
It began as a trickle — mayim barely covering the feet — but every thousand cubits it deepened: ankle, knee, waist, then waters to swim in.
The farther it flowed, the more alive the land became.
Trees lined its banks; fruit renewed every month.
Even the salty sea turned fresh.
This vision isn’t geography — it’s theology.
The source of life is the presence of God.
In Hebrew thought, mayim ḥayyîm — “living water” — means water that moves, cleanses, revives.
By the time of Jesus, that phrase had become shorthand for the Spirit Himself.
So when He cried, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink” (John 7 :37–39), He was fulfilling the temple-river dream. The Spirit would no longer flow from a building but from within believers.
The Flow Between Them
The gardener tends what God plants.
The river carries what God pours.
One calls us to faithful care; the other to fearless surrender.
We are both soil-keepers and stream-bearers — cultivating goodness in the ground entrusted to us while letting the Spirit deepen His current through us.
Our call is not to force growth but to stay close to the source.
As the river widens, it asks: will you go deeper?
As the garden matures, it asks: will you keep tending?
To say yes to both is to bear the Gardener’s image — to live as temples where living water never ceases.
Scripture Threads
- Genesis 2:15 — “To work (ʿābad) and keep (šāmar) the garden.”
- Ezekiel 47:9 — “Wherever the river goes, everything will live.”
- John 7:38–39 — “Out of his inner being will flow rivers of living water (hydōr zōn).”
- John 20:15 — “She supposed Him to be the gardener.”
Reflection — “Pause / Ponder / Pray”
Pause: What part of your life feels like soil awaiting care — and what part like water calling you deeper?
Ponder: How does seeing work as ʿābad and šāmar reshape your sense of purpose?
Pray:
“Creator and Cultivator,
teach me Your gardener’s patience
and Your river’s trust.
Root me in Your presence;
carry me where Your Spirit flows.”
Article Series
Originally published on Medium. Reposted with the author’s permission. All rights reserved.
