by Ken Pennings, June 1, 2010
The weather in Madison on Memorial Day was perfect for gardening. John and I got up early, laced up our mud shoes, and headed up to our plot in the community garden to dig out the weeds in one our raised beds.
Another gardener greeted us, “Good morning, brothers.”
Nice.
As we weeded, I felt compelled to unearth many buried thoughts in my mind and share them verbally with John – chatter, chatter, and more chatter.
When I finally came up for air, John asked “How soon before we can be present to the dirt?”
“Good idea,” I thought. “In fact, as soon as we return to the house, we will turn off the phones and answering machine so that we can be present to the dirt all day long.”
So, for one entire day, we communed with the dirt, listened to the seedlings, mused at the bugs, birds, and bunnies, and felt the warm sun on our foreheads, shoulders and backs.
There’s nothing like a little dirt under the fingernails to refresh mind, body and spirit.
A number of months ago, when Dr. Cal DeWitt preached in worship at ORUCC, he showed us Rembrandt’s painting “The Risen Christ Appearing to Mary Magdalen,” in which Jesus is pictured wearing a wide-brim farmer’s hat and holding a shovel in his right hand. Christ is risen, and he IS the gardener.
As the “first Adam” tended the garden of Eden, “the second Adam,” Jesus, tends all of God’s creation.
Cal challenged us to join Jesus, our fellow gardener, in tending, taking care of, and protecting Mother Earth.
After my restorative holiday in the dirt, what is quite apparent to me now is that the Earth is taking care of me just as much as I am taking care of it.
