The rock in the garden

I have ample time this year to watch my garden grow.  And, since I can’t buy new plants, perennials are the whole show.  Most important of those repeat performances are my herbs.  I am impatiently checking on them every day, to see if, indeed, they’re returning. The tiny specks of green in my oregano pot are a welcome sight.

Perennials are a gift, because I do nothing each year to bring forth the benefit.  I just watch and wait.

In chapter 17 of Isaiah, the prophet crafts a strong and subtle analogy using a garden.

            For you have forgotten the God of your salvation

                        and have not remembered the Rock of your refuge;

            therefore, though you plant pleasant plants

                        and sow the vine-branch of a stranger,

            though you make them grow on the day that you plant them,

                        and make them blossom in the morning that you sow,

            yet the harvest will flee away

                        in a day of grief and incurable pain. (Isaiah 17:10–11)

Here, the gardeners – really grape-growers (or, for your next Zoom dinner party, a vigneron) – are mockingly commended for working a miracle.  They made a stranger’s vine-branch blossom in a single day!

Isaiah is addressing Israel’s religious appropriation of the gods of other nations, particularly fertility cults.  People “planted” Asherah poles – symbolic trees of a female deity – throughout the land in an effort to ensure prosperity.

Today’s special: imported, hand-grown blessing!

We roll our eyes at their wrong-headedness.  But we have our own gardens full of idols.  Our version is more subtle than a physical object.  We’re too sophisticated for that.  Our false sources of security are the systems that we build around us to provide for what we need.  Our jobs.  Our bank accounts.  The supply chain.  Government aid.

This pandemic is showing us how little we control them.  And how unreliable they truly are.

In contrast, God is a rock of refuge.  Unmovable.  Unshakable.  Reliable.  Solid.  And he is “the God of your salvation.”  This is the truth that we need.  Salvation, here, should not be framed as a once and done act.  This is an ongoing attribute: he is your unending source of saving power.  This year.  This week.  This moment.

In our house, we are getting through this ordeal one day at a time.  We are well aware that we don’t control any level of societal decision-making.  We can’t predict if meat will be available in stores next month.  Or if normalcy is on the horizon.

But in a way, that’s a good thing.  We are seeing clearly how much we need to rely on Christ.

In that day people will look to their Maker
    and turn their eyes to the Holy One of Israel.
They will not look to the altars,
    the work of their hands  (Isaiah 17:7-8)

May this be true for our world today.

Lord God, our Maker, we turn our eyes to you.  We see, quite painfully, how much we have relied on our perennial systems and not on you.  We turn to you, our Rock of refuge.  You alone are our saving God.  Help us in this time of great need.

Reader:  How has God been your refuge during this pandemic?