(Amos 9: 13)

With all of the failed attempts to make a garden of peace by the hands of man, it is no surprise that God would choose to remake things in the end.  This is the only way that there would be a guarantee that the results would not be a mess.  I am most encouraged by the picture of the new earth in the close of Amos’ prophesy.  It will be a time where we will work, but the work will prove to be productive beyond our wildest imagination.  Amos tells us that the harvest will be so abundant that those who plow will catch up to those that harvest—that the harvest will be so abundant that those who are reaping will not have time to harvest all of the bounty before it is time to plant again.  It will not be filled with thorns and thistles of frustration and failure, but the hand of God will be on our labors.

But there is a more important difference between our gardens now and God’s final garden; God will be present.  He will once again stroll with man, and we will see his glory.  There, dear Christian is a picture of paradise: being in the presence of God.

         For the LORD comforts Zion;

                        he comforts all her waste places

            and makes her wilderness like Eden,

                        her desert like the garden of the LORD;

             joy and gladness will be found in her,

thanksgiving and the voice of song.

(Isaiah 51:3, ESV)