This is what God the Lord says—
the Creator of the heavens, who stretches them out,
    who spreads out the earth with all that springs from it,
    who gives breath to its people,
    and life to those who walk on it:

A day or two ago I pruned the roses in our garden at Carlton-in-Coverdale. We are situated close to 1,000 feet above sea level, and it can be quite wild and generally colder by a degree or two here. During the summer months, I have marvelled at the growth and beauty of these plants, and their resilience. But at times I have also fretted over them, even as I have continued to tend and nurture them. For the most part it’s been a wet, and extremely windy summer. But with the return of a spell of warmth and sunshine in September, they were back in strength and size and colour: fiercely and stubbornly alive, and blazing forth their startling colours.

However, I knew it was now time to cut them back. As of today, things look quite bare in places where there was a riot of bloom only a few weeks ago. But of this I feel certain, next year, at the right time, they will ‘spring’ up again.

I was captivated by the line in today’s verse which says, ”…the earth with all that springs from it…”

God has so set up this world that it is filled with abundant, teeming, raging, tenaciously reproductive life. You need look no further than your garden, with its annual cycle of death and resurrection, to wonder at the greatness of the Creator, and to catch a breath-taking glimpse of the gospel.