A Watered Garden

 For the Second Sunday After Christmas

From “Sitting on the Rainbow”

Scripture Reference: Jeremiah 31:12  “Their life will be like a watered garden, and all their sorrows will be gone.”

Preparation: Bring a watering can and packets of seeds. You may even bring some potted flowers, seedlings, or seeds to hand out to the children.  

I’d like to read one verse from the Bible to you. It’s part of the Old Testament reading: Jeremiah, chapter 31, verse 12. “God’s people will come home and sing songs on the heights of Jerusalem. They will be radiant because of the many gifts the Lord has given them; the good crops of wheat, wine, and oil, and the healthy flocks and herds. Their life will be like a watered garden, and all their sorrows will be gone” (NLT) .

“Their life will be like a watered garden… ” What a wonderful word picture! What is a watered garden like? What would you find in a watered garden? (Let children offer their responses.) You would find green things growing, wouldn’t you? Flowers, vegetables, bushes, fruit trees, shade trees; all of these things can grow and thrive in a watered garden.

Let’s pretend we’ve planted a garden here at the front of the church. What sorts of things would you see here? What would you like to find in a garden? (Listen to answers and offer your own favorites.) It sounds like we have a wonderful garden here! Now, what would happen to our garden if we all went away and nobody watered or took care of it for a long time? The garden would wither and die, wouldn’t it?

We all have something like a garden inside each of us. Our “inside garden” is filled with our thoughts, our discoveries, and our feelings. Our garden is who we are deep inside. Who do you suppose waters our inside gardens? Who fills us with love and good thoughts and healthy feelings? (A child may answer.) Yes, God is our gardener; and if we let him tend the garden, how will the garden grow? Our garden will be very healthy and fruitful. When we pray and listen to God and read our Bibles and obey God, then we stay healthy inside.

I hope that all of your lives will be like a watered garden. Before you go back to your places, let’s water our pretend garden and watch the plants sprout up. (Use your watering can to pretend to water the garden. You or the children may comment on the pretend plants sprouting.) Thank you for gardening with me this morning.

Prayer:  Dear Lord, our loving gardener, water our lives with your love and keep us free from the weeds and thorns of bad thoughts. Help us to grow up healthy inside and out.