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Good morning. The gorgeous weather over the weekend spurred me to make a rare visit to a garden centre to refresh my pots of herbs. There were lots of keen gardeners weighed down with potting compost, small trees and bushes, and garden plants of all varieties. It is the time of year when even the reluctant gardener finds green fingers. As I wandered round the outdoor aisles I was struck by how sinister some plants are. Spotted fritillaries always have a hint of evil for me, and phormium plants with their bronze, sword-like leaves suggest hidden violence in the undergrowth. At the beginning of Holy Week they seemed to me to resonate with the Passion story. There are three significant gardens in the Bible and two of them play a large part in the liturgies of this week. The Garden of Gethsemane where Jesus prayed to be spared the cross; and the Garden where Jesus was buried and where, according to the gospels, the tomb was found empty. The third garden of course is the one at the beginning of the Bible, the Garden of Eden with its forbidden fruit. On Thursday some churches will make a temporary garden for prayer – a symbolic Gethsemane for believers to keep watch with Jesus through the night of his arrest and trial. I wondered what kind of plants you might bring into church to set the mood; dramatic brooding ones, or peaceful blooms. And then there are the Easter gardens which will greet worshippers next Sunday. For millennia humans have cultivated nature. But as well as growing crops for food we have striven to make something more from our sowing and planting. The garden is a deliberate non-essential; where we use plants and trees and grasses and water for relaxation and contemplation. Variety is key. The dark notes need to be there alongside the brightest blooms; there is need for the thorn as well as the flower. I can’t help wondering whether the Garden of Eden story isn’t meant to suggest that God cultivates humanity as we might cultivate our plots and pots. I don’t think the story was ever meant to be historical – it is about our longing for fulfilment and our failure to find it. The ideal life in the Bible, is one in which everyone lives under their own vine and fig tree, at peace with one another and God. But the reality is that we undermine our true desires by anxiety, greed, and the lust for control and that leaves us a prey to our own worse instincts. For me, original sin is not a bad description of the human condition. As we water our garden plants this week, we could keep in tune with Holy Week by remembering that the Garden of our souls contains a rather nasty snake. Not everything in the garden is lovely, but it is in the midst of the garden that we still find the tree of life.