This summer has been great to watch Jessa bring in treasures from her garden. It has not only been delicious but it has been a great reminder of a powerful illustration! Usually when I have thought about a garden I thought about beauty, life, value, and health. However, this summer God made it signify something far more personal!

Adam and Eve had to leave the garden of Eden because they disobeyed! They could not stay in the garden with the Tree of Life because of their sin, they had to die. They lost the gift that God gave them. They defiantly wanted something different than what He he willed for them. (Genesis 2 & 3)

Jesus went to Gethsemane to see if there could be another way to pay the sin debt for Adam, Eve and mankind. He was in such distress about what was going to happen that his body sweat drops of blood. In spite of the fatal reality of obedience, Jesus chose to accomplish the will of God so I could live. (Luke 22:39-46)

God divinely arranged for me to be diagnosed with ALS in New Jersey, the Garden State. What a great place to ask me if I will be willing to die to self and truly live for Him! Now a garden illustrates a place of decision, where I daily have to decide to surrender God's will. Jesus's Garden State of Mind!

Matthew 16:24-26

Then Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life[a] will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what shall a man give in return for his soul?