Gift #654: Garden delight

This beautiful poem is etched on a plaque at the entrance of Denver Botanic Gardens.  While one of the stanzas is well known, the poem in its entirety is a lovely piece of work and I’d like to share it with you today along with some more pictures of the gardens.  I love the poem for its reminder that gardens play a pivotal role in our collective story.  After all, paradise was lost and won back for us in a garden.  God took His first steps on earth in a garden after finishing the work of the original creation.  And His first steps after His resurrection were also in a garden – when He finished the work of a new creation and a new kingdom.

THE Lord God planted a garden
In the first white days of the world,
And He set there an angel warden
In a garment of light enfurled.

So near to the peace of Heaven,
That the hawk might nest with the wren,
For there in the cool of the even
God walked with the first of men.

And I dream that these garden-closes
With their shade and their sun-flecked sod
And their lilies and bowers of roses,
Were laid by the hand of God.

The kiss of the sun for pardon,
The song of the birds for mirth,–
One is nearer God’s heart in a garden
Than anywhere else on earth.

For He broke it for us in a garden
Under the olive-trees
Where the angel of strength was the warden
And the soul of the world found ease.

Blessings to you,

Sarah