Tuesday, July 16: “Horticultural Greatness”

Romans 11: 24: "For if you were cut off from what is by nature a wild olive tree, and were grafted contrary to nature into a cultivated olive tree, how much more will these who are the natural branches be grafted into their own olive tree?"

Count on St. Paul to come up with an analogy where God is the Master Gardener. It makes sense; after all, He did a pretty good job with Eden. Paul’s point, however, is the same as with his metaphor of Christ tearing down the dividing wall separating Jews and Gentiles (Ephesians 2: 13-16): In Christ's Body, He has made both Jew and Gentile one plant in one garden, abiding in one vine, which is completely contrary to our wild nature. But even nature bows to its Creator, in the greatness of His design.