The Gardens of En Gedi

If you ever feel like you need a respite from the floods of the storms of life, a visit to the botanical gardens, where you can take in all the live colours and beautiful scenery, sure can help you reset in those chaotic moments. Gardens evoke peace, and gentility, with their fresh air and lovely colours from the plants and flowers arrayed in all their glory.  It’s a place where one gets to reimagine, strategize and locate what’s important. Gardens also evoke promise, romance, work, fruitfulness and unity with one’s authentic and best self. Genesis reveals that mankind’s introduction to God was in a garden. It was in the Garden of Eden that Adam was formed, and Eve was made.  God’s original plan was for them to make Eden their home, where they could grow in communion with Him and flourish as a family in the environment. The garden was made to protect them, preserve them and help pilot them for a wonderful adventure. Every time one visits a garden, there is a pioneering spirit that comes into play; we become curious about everything we see; just one step around the corner leads us into something new and different.  

According to Google sources, the word En Gedi means “Spring of the Goat Kid” in Hebrew and is the name of an oasis in the desert west of the Dead Sea. En Gedi is also known as a hiding place in which David fled when he escaped from the evil attacks of his nemesis King Saul (1 Samuel 23: 29—24:2). Some also say it was the place where David wrote Psalms 63 detailing his time in the desert of Judah. David’s life was threatened, and he sought to find solace that God would save him from the attacks of his enemies. En Gedi was home to David for quite some time; even though King Saul had unknowingly entered the area and had a chance encounter with him. David spared King’s Saul’s life in the place that gave him protection.

En Gedi is known for its other features, such as its rocky terrain, waterfalls, aromatic plants and vineyards. Song of Solomon 1:14 mentions vineyards and the henna plant which is known as an aromatic blooming plant used to make perfume and dye.  En Gedi was a place in the Bible known for its beauty, refuge and wilderness. It served to protect David and was the place where King Solomon wooed his Shulamite Bride for courtship. It is also the place featured in the end times where Christ will return and the Dead Sea (devoid of fish) will be turned into living waters, Ezekiel 47:8-9.

According to scripture, the Lord compares our hearts to a garden (Jeremiah 31:12). Just as Jeremiah proclaimed that God would bring His people back into respite and deliver them from their adversaries, they would also be overflowed with immense joy, productivity and beautiful times of refreshing. In addition, His people would be a well-watered garden. God desires that our hearts are transformed into gardens. Our hearts are the places in which our emotions dwell. Proverbs 4: 23 states “ above all else, guard your heart , for everything you do flows from it” . Our hearts project who we are as human beings. It is the one place that Christ wants to capture so that we can be immersed in Him and His ways.

Jesus Christ  is the ultimate gardener and He desires to uproot some defiling things which may  reside in our hearts.  God wants us to be well tended trees; however it will take work and effort to be beautifully cultivated like the Garden of En-Gedi. You and I were made to offer beautiful and expansive shade so that Jesus can sit under our trees or perhaps visit the verandahs of our hearts. God wants you and I to be fruitful in every area of our lives. He also wants us to populate seeds of love, right ways of doing things and live free from pollutants which may infect our leaves and branches. As we contemplate our ways, I pray our hearts will locate Jesus so that He cultivates us from within. Jesus stands at the doors of our hearts and just like En Gedi, He wants to protect, buttress and shield us from the storms of life. He wants us to become like fruitful vineyards, not for the commercial benefits of men but for saving the souls of men.  Let Jesus visit our hearts and let the revelation begin. Shalom.