'Garden to Garden' Devotional Book Rooted in Our Longing for Eden
If someone were to ask you to share the Old Testament story of the Garden of Eden, you would likely respond with mentions of Adam and Eve, forbidden fruit, and a very persuasive snake. And the story would end there. But the reality is the Garden of Eden is not an end but a beginning.
In her latest devotional book, Garden to Garden: Through the Bible from Eden to Eternal Paradise, author Marian Jordan Ellis leads readers through the story arc of God’s great redemptive plan, one that encompasses the entire Bible and beyond. Her desire is to provide readers a fresh perspective on our longing for Eden and a greater understanding on how to flourish in His grace.
I recently sat down with Jordan Ellis to discuss why there are echoes of Eden throughout the entire Bible, how humanity's plight affects the outcome of living independently from God, and how this practical devotional book can serve as a tremendous discipleship tool with friends.
For every author, there always seems to be a trigger, a tipping point, a moment where you say to yourself, “I have to write this book!” For you what was that moment with Garden to Garden?
You know, there were a couple. It was kind of a nudge for me. The Holy Spirit kept giving me this title as I would do my own devotional time with the Lord. I would see the themes of the garden, see the themes of Eden, each bringing us back to Eden throughout the Scriptures. I'm a Bible teacher at heart, and so I would start teaching these things and people would ask me questions. And so it really was born out of people's curiosity in my teachings. And then I had a dear friend who's a busy mom. She has four kids. She's working, doing all the things. And I typically write the more in-depth larger format Bible studies. And she says, “I need something that I, as a mom, can do in 10 minutes, but it's not fluff. Can you do that?” And the challenge was before me, by God's grace. I think we can. And so that's where this devotional was born. It's not fluff, but it's also attainable for the person who is super busy but wants to dig into God's Word.
This is a big wide open question. What fascinates you about the Bible?
I love the concept that we behold and become. And so a lot of my past, I was in brokenness, addiction, and just in a lot of darkness. And at 25 years old, Jesus literally rescued me from myself, from the things that were holding me captive. But it was His Word that changed me. Psalm 107 says, “Let the redeemed of the Lord tell their story.” And then it talks about how we are redeemed. And God says, “He sends out His Word and He heals us.” And so, as I've been walking with Jesus for 25 years, what has happened is the Word of God is not just information I've learned about someone who is a distant deity. It's the living person of God through His Word, who's transformed my life. And so this story that we call the Bible is actually the power of God that transforms us as we know Him. We know who He is and what He does in this world. We are transformed to be wholly alive, living as His image bearer creatures that God made us to be. And so, I'm passionate because I've experienced the power of His Word.
The Bible begins in the garden and ends in a garden. What happens in between that you are trying to convey to your readers?
We start in Genesis 3, which really is where the redemption story begins. In Genesis 3, in the Garden, sin enters the world. What sin essentially is, is independence from God. I want to be my own God, have independence, humanity, and eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. This says, God, we don't need you. We can do a better job on our own. And the fruit of that decision, of that autonomy, of that independence, was all of the suffering, shame, sin, sickness that we experience in this world. So, the entire redemption story from garden to garden is God showing us how not only will He rescue us, but He will make all things new, and restore us to what He intended. And so, throughout those other 65 books of the Bible, what we see is first of all, humanity's plight and the outcome of living independently from God. And then in the New Testament, we see God himself come as Jesus Christ to be our redeemer and to bring us home.
This book seems to dig into the who, what, why, where, when questions about life that present themselves in the Bible. This seems like a very daunting task. Were there times when you were writing this book where you said to yourself, “This is bigger than me.”? And if so, what did you do to regain your confidence?
It was absolutely bigger than me. You know, I have three kids. And so my writing time would be about four or five in the morning. And the Lord kept giving me that picture in the Old Testament of the widow who had just a little bit of oil, and every day she had to go back and the Lord gave her a little bit more and a little bit more. And the oil never ran out. And so, for about three months, I would get up in the morning and I would just say, Lord, I need the oil today. And this summarizing the Bible in 30 days was probably the most impossible task I've ever taken on as a writer and speaker. But I really sensed the Lord breaking down the components for me, even how each day is broken down to reflect a garden. You have the seed, you have the flourish, and you cultivate. Then you have a harvest. And then the whole breakdown of the Bible from Eden to exile to Immanuel to eternity, and how the Lord just gave me that outline so sweetly. Then, day by day, He would feed me what part to teach next.
You have been quoted as saying there are “echoes of Eden” in every single page of the Bible. Why do you say that?
Well, it's that longing that we have for our creator. Blaise Pascal says there's a God-shaped hole in our souls that can only be filled by God himself. And so what we see in the Old Testament and in the longing of the people and in their suffering is we see that we were created for something different. And it's this cry of our souls that says, we were not created to be autonomous. We were not created to be independent from God. And that we hear this cry to return to Eden. So, when Jesus steps on the scene and He steps in and preaches the Kingdom of God, it's God's heavenly reign coming to earth. And we see Him being fully God and fully man, and what it means to walk with the Father. We see Him bringing us back into the garden, and he says to us in these audacious claims, “I am the way, I am the truth, and I am the life.”
It's all of these echoes of Eden throughout every story, throughout every encounter, especially with seeing the person of Christ, to the woman at the well who's thirsty. He says, “I'm living water.” That river of life that flowed through Eden, He brings us into it, to be able to drink again. I would say the number one thing that people get confused about, and it will make me angry if I'm watching a television show, or if I'm hearing a conversation in a good righteous anger, is the rules based mentality of people, or the workspace mentality that the enemy feeds people. That it is not us trying to be good and reach God through our human effort. And if we see anything from the redemption story in the Bible it’s that human effort could not do it. So God had to come to us, literally come to us, in our imperfection, and take on our sin so that we could be brought near through His perfect sacrifice. And so, while I want to live a holy and righteous life in response to who Jesus is and what He's done for me, and because now I'm a child of God, it's not through legalistic efforts that we attain some type of standing with God. It's so sad to me that the number of people who think they're Christians still live by the law instead of living by grace.
After people have had a chance to read Garden to Garden what would you like your readers to get out of the experience? What is your greatest hope for the book?
My greatest hope is multiplication. If you think about a harvest, you know a seed goes into the ground, it's planted, it's watered, and then it bears fruit. Well, in that bearing fruit process, that seed is scattered again, and it bears more fruit. That's the whole agricultural model that Jesus gave us. One of my hearts was for discipleship, that someone who has walked through this journey of reading the Bible in 30 days, and I even have teaching videos that go with it, they would then take a coworker or a friend or someone that they know is hungry to know the Lord, but doesn't know where to start, and they would walk through this with them. And that multiplication, which is what discipleship is, it's one disciple making another disciple, is that they would then have a tool in their hands that they could make disciples. And how would our world change if every person that calls themselves a Christian would then dig into God's Word and then take a friend alongside them to know and behold Jesus. We would change the world in no time.
To Purchase Garden to Garden: Through the Bible from Eden to Eternal Paradise:
WATCH MARIAN JORDAN ELLIS TEACH ON PSALM 121:
