The sacred garden

It is no surprise to me that I have had many moments of quiet reflection, meditation, and inspiration in gardens of all types and sizes. Gardens have always been used as places of spiritual importance. There are four we know of by name.

The first such garden was the Garden of Eden. It was within this garden that God finished all of his creations with the creation of man, Adam and Eve. It was in this garden that Adam and Eve learned their first lessons they would need on this earth and made their first covenants with God. The Garden of Eden was where the sacred event of the Creation culminated.

The next garden would be the Garden of Gethsemane. In contrast to the joyful spiritual creation of the Garden of Eden, it was in this garden that the Lord knelt in prayer and fulfilled the law of justice for all of us. It was the atonement carried out in this garden, that gives importance to the events in all other gardens.

Three days after the events in the Garden of Gethsemane, it is the spiritual events in the Garden Tomb that brought light again to the world. I imagine the garden around the empty tomb to be one of the most beautiful places on earth. The peacefulness of the garden would have been a perfect setting for the announcement that death had been conquered, that the Lord had risen, that resurrection was indeed a reality.

Centuries later we have another important garden, although it is more often referred to by another name, the Sacred Grove. When Joseph Smith went to make his first attempt at prayer, he went to a peaceful grove of trees. And it was there that both God the Father, and His Son, Jesus Christ, appeared. They are living beings. They answered the humble prayer of Joseph Smith. The restoration of all of God’s blessings, covenants, and promises to the earth was begun in that garden.

There is a fifth garden of great spiritual importance. But there is no name for this garden. What’s more, there is no one specific place for this garden. The fifth garden is the garden where each of us experience our own spiritual growth. Some of these gardens might be actual gardens. I have often had spiritual promptings and felt much needed peace while working with the plants in my garden, even if that garden is nothing more than a collection of pots outside my apartment. The gardens of the temple grounds have been spiritually important gardens for myself and countless others. There are also the natural gardens of the mountains and other places of nature that give us a place to escape from the noise and confusion of the world to experience the peace and spirit of the Lord.

I encourage you to find your own garden, of whatever type it may be, that can be your own sacred gardens of peace and spiritual importance.