The Gardener, A Story by Brian Zhand

The Gardener, By Brian Zhand

Once upon time there was gardener. For six days he worked planting a garden. It was a good garden full of spices and everything nice. On the sixth day, it was a Friday, the gardener made a clay man and a clay woman. Then the gardener breathed into his clay man and woman and they came to life. When the gardener was finished with his work on that Friday, he looked at all he had made -- his garden and his clay couple -- and he said it was good. On the next day, Saturday, the gardener rested from all of his work.

For a while the gardener and his living clay couple lived happily in the garden of spices. But one day a snake crawled into the garden and that's when things began to go bad...real bad. The snake was a talking snake and it told lies to the living clay couple -- lies about the garden and the gardener. The living clay couple listened to the lies of the snake and disobeyed the good gardener. That's when the clay man and woman died on the inside. Because of this the clay couple had to leave the garden. This made them sad.

Ages went by and the clay man and woman had millions of clay children. Even though these clay children could walk and talk, they were dead on the inside.

Then the gardener did something wonderful. He made another clay man, a clay man who had the gardener's own breath on the inside of him. This was the gardener's own son, the gardener made of clay. The son of the gardener did many good things and made life better for everyone around him.

But one day evil clay people hung the gardener's son on a tree. It was a Friday. At the end of the day the gardener's son cried out from the tree, "It is finished." Then the breath left him and he died. Friends of the gardener's son buried him in a tomb in a garden and filled the tomb with spices.

On the next day, Saturday, the gardener's son rested in the garden tomb among the spices.Then came Sunday morning. The first day of a new week. It turned out to be the first day of a new age. Because early that morning the breath of the gardener came back into the gardener's son and he got up and left the tomb. When one of the friends of the gardener's son came to the tomb in the morning, she found the tomb empty. This surprised her. Then she bumped into the gardener's son and thought he was the gardener. When she found out what had happened, that the gardener's son was alive again, she ran off to tell her friends.

Later that day, it was a Sunday, remember, the gardener's son came to where a bunch of his friends were. Then he breathed on them just like the gardener had done with the first clay couple a long, long time ago. When he did this the clay people came to life on the inside. This made them very happy.

The gardener's son then told his friends to go tell all the other clay people how they could come alive on the inside. The gardener's son also promised to make a new garden even better than the old garden. He told his clay friends that when the new garden was finished, they would all live happily ever after.

Until the Gardener's Son breathes on us we're dead men.

The End.

Brian Zhand is the Senior Pastor of Word of Life Church in St. Joseph, Missouri.