I am so excited about the message of my 4th book, The Master’s Garden: An Allegory of Abiding in the Vine, that I just had to give you a taste! It has just been released. So I am including the beginning of chapter 1.
Chapter 1 A Strange World
Imagine. A world containing very unusual plants that can think, see, hear, and speak—a kind of plant-animal hybrid, so to speak. This world, called Plantasia, was beautiful—filled with all types of plants from the tiniest flower to the towering giant redwood.
The Master Gardener created this strange world for His pleasure. He was good, loving, powerful, all-wise, and very patient. Most of all, though, He was pure and perfect.
Now the Gardener loved all the diverse vegetation in this world which He had made, and wanted nothing more than for each plant to love Him in return. He gave these unique plants the ability to choose whether to come under His loving care or remain in the wild and live on their own.
When plants agreed to come under the Gardener’s care, they were grafted onto the roots of the Vine and became permanently His. Now this Vine was no ordinary plant. He came directly from the Master Gardener Himself and there was a special bond between Them. Their union enabled embedded plants to connect with the Gardener in a personal way.
Plants belonging to the Master Gardener thrived under His tender care. He knew their exact needs. He abundantly supplied them with light and Living Water and fed them with His Word. His Living Water carried nutrient truths up to all parts of the plant, helping them to absorb the vital minerals. This life-giving liquid not only sustained them but also promoted extraordinary growth.
In addition to these three essential ingredients of light, water, and food, the Gardener used other measures to help His plants flourish. He pruned, divided, transplanted, and sprayed as needed. He did this out of His lovingkindness; longing for each one to achieve its full potential.
The duty of each individual plant belonging to the Gardener was to grow and be beautiful in His eyes and to reflect His wonderful qualities. In order to accomplish this, they needed the strength of the Vine. If they tried to grow roots outside the Vine, ugly and distorted growth resulted. The more they lived their lives through the Vine, the more they flourished. How much and how quickly they developed into what they were meant to be largely depended upon their willingness to cooperate with their Keeper.
Each plant was designed to reveal the character of the Gardener differently. Some were grand, like the mighty oak. Others were very prolific, like the squash. And then there were those who were just small and dainty, like the lily of the valley. Each was uniquely fashioned, cultivated, and valued by the Master Gardener. All brought Him distinct pleasure as they displayed His handiwork and fulfilled His plan for them.
Together, all the Gardener’s plants showed His greatness and majesty. It was a sight to behold! Their beauty was so appealing that it drew wild plants to want to know the wonderful Gardener and be placed under His nurturing care.
However, there was an even more important reason why all plants needed to belong to the Gardener…
In the beginning everything was perfect. In this newly created world, the Master Gardener planted two individuals into a beautiful garden and told them to enjoy growing there. They were instructed that their roots could go anywhere, except for one small area.
So they flourished and frequently enjoyed the presence of the Gardener as He walked among them—until one dreadful day when everything changed.
You see, the Master had an evil enemy. He used to be one of the Gardener’s helpers but wanted to usurp the Gardener, so he was kicked out of the garden. This enemy wanted nothing more than to get revenge and sought to destroy this perfect garden. On that fateful day, he tricked the two plants and enticed them to penetrate their roots into forbidden territory. Little did they know it was contaminated. They became infected with a deadly disease which eventually spread throughout the entire garden and the rest of Plantasia. But the good Gardener couldn’t leave them in this dying state. He had to make a way to rescue His precious plants.
Therefore, He planted His special Vine into the world, One that had the very same qualities as the Master Gardener. The pure and perfect Vine grew and experienced all the same difficulties as any plant does—and even more. Yet He grew exactly as the Master Gardener wanted, and pleased Him in every way.
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Sorry to leave you hanging like that, but I kind of did that on purpose!
So until next time, my friends, if you want to learn how to abide in Christ the Vine I know that this crazy allegory will help you! Now available on Amazon and our online store in all formats.
Read the first 3 chapters for FREE
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