The one celebrates the very nature of our Trinitarian God, one in three, three in one, who invites us to choose life by joining the trinitarian dance of love (perichoresis). The other roots life in the ordinary - a vegetable garden from which comes, symbolically, our daily bread. But the latter points too to the truth that people "shall not live by bread alone" in reminding us of the importance of being fed by God through regular Christian acts of discipleship.
1. The Centennial Garden of Community United Methodist Church, established in 2007 and still evolving, celebrates 100 years of ministry in Leavenworth, Washington. The three huge, glacial boulders anchor the garden and our congregations' faith in the "Trinity-mapped country in which [Christians] know and believe in and serve God: The Father and creation, the Son and history, and the Spirit and community" (Eugene Peterson). We are invited, as we take a seat on the two wooden benches, to experience God as the ground of our being - that still today God cares and wants to sustain both our personal lives and the life of all creation by living in relationship with us.2. The Jerusalem Cross Garden invites members to participate in God's rhythm and
receive Gods' gift of place. Rhythm: Seasons come and seasons go - spring, summer, autumn, winter- giving us our daily food. And gardening connects us tangibly to this divine rhythm of creation that helps to feed us. On the other hand, the weekly day of rest, part of God's rhythm too, feeds our soul by anchoring us in the fertile soil of God's nurturing love. Place: The gift of place reminds us that we are placed in this particular part of Gods' garden, the Wenatchee River Valley. It is here that we are called to tend the garden and all that is in it, people and all created things.
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