Erling Rantrud

Instagram: @erling.rantrud

Website: www.underfikentreet.no

“I have always loved all growing things. From the tallest trees to the smallest mosses to the sea weed in the fjords. And if I can spot a squirrel, a frog, or a porpoise amongst the growing things I am happier for it. I have always loved God’s creation. 

That is probably why I was first trained as a gardener. But I like people, too. And the Bible. So after a few years of gardening I went on to teach and became a teacher at a high school. But church also occupied my mind, so now, and for the last eight years, I have been a pastor in a small Lutheran church in Sandefjord Norway. And my congregation has to endure my endless ramblings about God’s wonderful creation every time I find tadpoles in my garden or a badger crosses my way. 

Even though I am waiting to turn 40 in September, I have been married for 20 years to my wife Gina. We have three children aged 14 to 19. Besides church and gardening, I love to kayak, read, and paint. I do water colors mostly connected to Bible verses. You may see some samples on my instagram @erling.rantrud or visit my neglected web page underfikentreet.no (under the fig tree).”

“The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it.”

Genesis 2:15 ESV

In the beginning there was a garden. “Work it and keep it!” God said to the humans who were there. And they did. Black, rich and fragrant soil was covered with green! Seeds sprouted, stems stretched towards the sky, buds and leaves spread over the whole earth.  Bathed in golden, green light, branches bore fruit, and down on the ground in the cool shade sweet, ripe berries were food for all who wanted them. Streams trickled, and both sun and moon mirrored their life-giving light in clear waters.

Birds, fish, animals and humans found both work and rest in a wild but safe garden.

God created the heavens and the earth. The heavenly and the earthly. There is something wonderfully beautiful about the fact that God chose a garden as the place for heaven and earth to meet. For that is most profoundly what the Garden of Eden was. A dwelling for the peoples of the earth saturated with heaven.

A garden is a safe place. Full of life.

I do not know what memories you have of gardens, but there is a particular garden at the centre of my childhood memories. In Grandma and Grandpa’s garden in the countryside somewhere in Western Norway where I am from, I could pick and eat currants to my heart’s content. I could play ball in the grass or lay down with my nose in a book and draw in the scent of clover and bathe in the beauty of the warm summer sun.

I would often dream away those happy days as I took shelter in the giant blood beech with the biggest and strongest branches in the whole wide world.

I would count the stripes on the bumblebees, listen to the heron’s hoarse cry in the spruce trees, and watch the deer trotting on the ridge at dusk.

There was freedom in my grandparent’s garden. And the work that came with it was good, like raking the grass after Grandpa had rushed noisily by with a puff of smoke from both the lawnmower and his tobacco pipe, or picking currants in a bucket that went straight into the pot where Grandma made red currant jelly. That work was good work to be a part of.

I wonder what memories from your childhood you carry with you of those happy places like my grandparent’s garden? For me, a garden is both work and rest at its very best. For the workplace is the resting place and the resting place is the working place and the result of both is new life!

If man is created in the image of God, God is the great Gardener. Both God and Gardener with capital G.

We do not know how long the first humans were in the Garden of Eden, but we can guess what kind of life they lived. And we know they were not alone. They lived where the heavens meet the earth and all is green and growing and full of life! God was there, walking with them in the evening breeze.

Was God there all the time, or did he come and go?

Perhaps he came and went, while the humans always experienced and felt the presence of God. In that Garden, they were free. Free to work. Free to rest. Free to praise God. By the way, did you know that the Hebrew word for work, Avodah, also means to serve and worship? We both honor and glorify God and worship Him when we work in the garden.

In the end, people were also free to eat from the Tree of Life in the middle of the garden. For there, in the centre  of that lush place where the heavenly and the earthly met and God still walked, there was life and abundance!

Unfortunately, that was not enough for the humans. Once they had been deceived into believing that a life outside of the garden would be better. And they found out the hard way that it wasn’t . So they made their choice to take and eat what they neither needed, should have, nor were entitled to.

“And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden.”

Genesis 3:8  

Since then, we humans have done the same. Instead of walking openly, we hide from both God and each other and withdraw to the darkest shadows where we think it is safest. But it is cold and dark and damp in the deepest shades. How often do we humans find ourselves sitting in a dark corner longing to step out into the warm sunlight but don’t?

We are shadow plants. Afraid that the gardener will see us. We fear being pruned and fertilized and watered. But what happens to plants in the light? When we weed and water, prune and care for them, there will be new growth and flowers and fruit!

The gardener is not scary. He calls you lovingly and knows exactly how to best care for you!

At the time of this writing it is Easter in the garden. It is not long since we remembered Jesus’ death and celebrated his resurrection. Mary, one of Jesus’ friends, also had an encounter with the great Gardener and was once again allowed to take on a life of good work and rest in God’s garden. For when the curtain of the temple was torn in two and Jesus died, the temple again became a place where heaven meets the earth. Only now it was the humans themselves who would become the temple of God. God dwells within us here on earth with his heavenly, holy spirit!

But Mary did not know this yet. She approached the tomb at dusk before the sun rose. Can you imagine how heavy the shadows were around her in those moments before dawn?

“But Mary stood weeping outside the tomb, and as she wept she stooped to look into the tomb. And she saw two angels in white, sitting where the body of Jesus had lain, one at the head and one at the feet. 

They said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping?” She said to them, “They have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him.” Having said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing, but she did not know that it was Jesus. 

Jesus said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you seeking?” 

Supposing him to be the gardener, she said to him, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away.” 

Jesus said to her, “Mary.” She turned and said to him in Aramaic, “Rabboni!” (which means Teacher). Jesus said to her, “Do not cling to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father; but go to my brothers and say to them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’” 

Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, “I have seen the Lord”—and that he had said these things to her.”

John 20:11-18 

Mary met the Master, who she first thought was the gardener, and she was right. It was the Master Gardener she met, indeed! He who comes and goes. He does not leave you, but he has many plants to take care of! Lots of places to be! And then we, who are just small sprouts, shoots and branches, are miraculously allowed to imitate the gardener as we work and rest in the garden where he has planted us.

Until the time when heaven again comes down to earth and everything is re-created and the whole world becomes a garden of Eden, we wait for Him. Then we shall walk with God in the cool evening breeze. A huge flock of little gardeners in the middle of all the life-giving greenery and no one shall hide, because God’s beautiful light blesses all things and the shadows are no more!

Closing Benediction

Bless the days over the fjords

Bless the light on the lands

Bless the eternal words

about hope and a helping hand

Guard these small things you gave us

the day you moved us here

So we know you will never let us despair,

but be sure you are there.

Gods peace over mountains and hills

Let it grow where we toil and dwell

Gods peace over livestock and sheep

and over the frozen and barren earth.

You see us in our land of darkness

God bless with eternal words 

The houses and mountains and waters

and people who dwell up here north