Three gardens

'And the Lord God planted a garden in the east...' It's very good but it doesn't last. In Genesis in Eden after they have disobeyed God, Adam and Eve hear the 'sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day'. It is evening and they hide from him because they are naked and afraid. It is a garden of separation, and death, of relationships destroyed.
As a contrast is Mary meeting the risen Jesus in the garden on Easter morning. Mary is naked in her grief and afraid but she goes seeking instead of hiding, wanting so much to stay with him that he has to say 'don't hold onto me' and sending her away to spread the message. I love it that she mistakes him for the Gardener, which of course he is. Here relationships are being made whole- 'go and tell my disciples - and Peter- that I have risen' . This is a morning garden starting in death and ending in life.
In between this evening garden and this morning garden is the night garden of Gethsemene where Jesus descends and harrows his own personal hell of doubt and fear. We talk of the cross being our salvation but it seems to me that the sacrifice is here in Gethsemene, where he can choose to walk away and doesn't. Once he decides to stay and wait for arrest and betrayal it seems to me the rest is inevitable. This is his choice, to stay and not run or hide, waiting out the night for the promise of morning ahead.