It was in Eden where the first blood was shed to deal with the aftermath of sin, when God provides skins to cover Adam and Eve naked bodies (Genesis 3:21). It was there that God's own hands, in His justice and His mercy, starts to reach toward mankind.There stands a cross unseen to our new nature of knowledge, but evident in the heart of God.There stands the promise of deliverance from an unchanging God, slow to anger and abundant in mercies towards us.

There is another garden, the Garden of the Song of Solomon. In it the heart of God, the nature of His love, is portrayed in the Beloved, and the condition and calling of mankind in the Shulamite bride.There too, everything revolves around a cross. There is a cross standing in the midst of that garden too, that calls from the heart of the  Beloved unto His Shulamite bride. There love conquers through, and through a cross shared by the Bride, the love of them both is restored to the intended communion of the beginning (Song Of Solomon 4:16). The cross is shared embracing the heart of God and the heart of man for ever. The Way is shown again from the midst of a garden.

But there remains a third garden, pivotal to the story of God's heart for mankind, it is in the Mount of Olives. One of Jesus' favorite places to retreat, and the very place He retreats for prayer just before  his betrayal and death (Mark 14:26).There we find truth that heals, obedience that rescues mankind and restores us to our nature of trust. The man Jesus, stands in prayer as the last Adam, for us, and chooses to trust His Father's heart. Obedience is sustain to the price of death, out of a love that has proved itself relentless in its faithfulness, unsurpassing in its justice. There the nature of trust agonizes to the point of sweating blood and as He well said, He laid down what nobody could have taken from Him, His life for us. There the Son of God, embraced completely and without restriction, our sin, to take it upon Himself for us, and pay for it.There, He received The Cup from His father's hand, and drank it to the bottom for us. There He becomes a cross to us, showing us the way, offering us the deliverance of truth into our deceived hearts, there He shows the High standard of Holiness required to to be in the presence of God, the faithfulness of God's love for us, His mercies never ceasing.

In the garden of Eden it is told to us, that with His own hands, God formed man out of dust, everything else was formed out of the power of His word, but for man he bares His hands and with His touch, He forms man. There He...what, reached, perhaps knelt?..... over the lifeless shape of man, to breath His own breath of life into us. In the Mount of Olives, once again God touches our helpless condition, embracing it and placing it upon Himself, to deliver us, to bring us back to life again. The life that sin took away from us, is restored by God in the man Jesus , His only begotten Son, God Himself for us, God with us.There is no greater love... it took place in a garden.

In a garden we shall see Him coming in His glory, and it will be right there in the Mount of Olives where His feet will render the ground asunder being not able to stand the weight of the glory of His Presence...( Zechariah 14:4)