Abraham labored diligently even though he was a rich landowner; for idleness is the beginning of every vice, and the devil’s pillow. Oh dear Lord Jesus, help me not to be ashamed of blisters on my hands. Work has been sanctified, commended, and blessed by You. Abraham was almost 110 years old, but he still worked his garden; that is true long-suffering! He did not himself expect to eat much from the trees, but worked for the good of his descendants, who would thank him later when he was lying in the earth. Oh Lord Jesus Christ, help me not to be a useless clod of earth but to live in such a way that the world may have some benefit from me. Let me think not only of myself but also of my children. Help me leave behind some sign of my virtue and piety so that I will not have to cry out with the condemned, “We did not show any sign of virtue” (Wisd. 5:13).
Gardening is an honest work which our most mighty Lord undertook on many occasions. King Cyrus used to boast before foreign ambassadors of the trees that he had planted in his garden by his own hand. Seneca took a great interest in gardening. Joseph of Arimathea was so fond of his garden that he wished to have himself buried in it. Diocletian abdicated the imperial crown and went about making a garden for himself; when Maximian and Galerius begged him to return to governing, he said, “Oh, if you could see the beautiful garden that I have laid out during my absence from the emperorship, you would not permit me to return to power!”
Above all it is the godly who take special pleasure in gardening. No doubt the godly preacher Abraham had very fine thoughts whenever he went out to his garden. He may well have had pleasant conversations with his companions on the subject of gardening too, or simply lifted up his heart to God: “Oh dear God, You designed the world’s first garden: help me never to forget You, in the garden or elsewhere.
“You planted the garden of Paradise. Alas, in Paradise our righteousness was lost by Adam’s fall! Yet in Paradise too our justification in the precious merit of the Serpent-Crusher, Jesus Christ, was announced. Oh dear God, I, a poor gardener, am just as foul a sinner as the first gardener, my earliest ancestor Adam. I too have sinned. Have mercy on me for the sake of Jesus Christ, and let me labor with a good conscience in this garden until You remove me to the garden of heavenly paradise. Though indeed I shall wither away in temporal death like the flowers in my garden, yet I will also rise again on the Last Day to eternal life. Because of the sin that Adam and Eve committed at the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, I must die; but because I have the Messiah, the Tree of Life, in my heart, I shall live again on the Last Day.”
Oh Lord Jesus, help me never to forget You in my garden or in my house. In a garden You sweated blood, in a garden You were buried, and in a garden You rose again from the dead. In the form of a gardener You appeared on Easter, for You were to restore everything that was ruined in the garden of Paradise by our first parents.
Oh my Lord Jesus, grant that I too may do honest work, that I may make my living in a godly way like faithful Abraham, and that I may in the performance of such toils put away all wicked thoughts and call to mind only that which is good.
Herberger, Valerius The Great Works of God: Parts Three and Four: The Mysteries of Christ in the Book of Genesis, Chapters 16-50 79-80