Within a Garden: A Song for Easter

Last updated on: April 3, 2024 at 4:25 pm by Devan Jensen

Within a Garden: A Song for Easter 2024-04-03T16:25:13-04:00 Devan Jensen

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Spring is a great time to grow a garden. After a long, dark winter, tiny seeds start to grow again. Trees begin to blossom again. The outdoors is abuzz again with the sounds of bees and songbirds. Within a garden, the miracle of new life brings hope to a weary world. Spring is also a wonderful season to celebrate Easter and hope of the Resurrection.

As Christians, each Easter we sing songs about Easter and the Resurrection. Twenty-five years ago, Dan Carter and I teamed up to compose a song that combines the themes of gardens with Easter in a hymn we called “Long Ago, Within a Garden.” This Easter Sunday I enjoyed singing this song with choirs in two different worship services.

Three Important Gardens

The first three verses take us to gardens at three critical times, beginning with the Garden of Eden. In the Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve became subject to death when they partook of the forbidden fruit.

Adam and Eve, no longer within a garden

Joseph Brickey/Art,LDS

1. Long ago, within a garden,
Adam tasted of a tree,
Death would be our awful burden;
only One could set us free.

Thousands of years later, in Gethsemane’s garden and on Calvary’s cross, our Savior paid the penalty for that earlier transgression.

2. Jesus came to win a pardon
For us in Gethsemane,
Humbly suff’ring in a garden,
Crucified on Calvary.

On the third day, a Sunday, Christ rose from a garden tomb, freeing us from physical death.

3. In a tomb within a garden,
People went to where He lay;
Angels told them, “He is risen,”
On that glorious Easter day.

The Father’s Eternal Garden

Because Jesus rose from the tomb, so shall we. The Apostle Paul very succinctly summarized this doctrine: “For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive” (1 Corinthians 15:22).

Verse 4 invites listeners to come to Christ and be forgiven, partaking of the sweet fruit of the tree of life within the Father’s eternal garden.

4.Come to Christ and be forgiven;
Taste the fruit of Father’s tree,
Sweetest fruit of all His garden;
Dwell with Him eternally.

My wish for all is that we can taste the sweet fruit of our Father’s tree and dwell with the Gardener eternally.

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About Devan Jensen

Devan Jensen is the executive editor and social media manager for the BYU Religious Studies Center and BYU Religious Education. He coordinates the office’s editing activities and has edited 250 books or book-length projects that have garnered many awards including five from the Mormon History Association. He and Rosalind Meno Ram were lead authors and editors of Battlefields to Temple Grounds: Latter-day Saints in Guam and Micronesia. He has served as president or chair of several professional boards, including Latter-day Saints in Publishing, Media, and the Arts. In 2016 Devan received the BYU President’s Appreciation Award. As a National Merit Scholar, he received his MA and BA degrees in English from BYU. He and his wife, Patty, live in Orem, Utah, and have four children and two grandchildren. He enjoys cycling, pickleball, singing, and magic. SEO Slug: within-a-garden-a-song-for-easter Devan Jensen is the executive editor and social media manager for the BYU Religious Studies Center and BYU Religious Education. He coordinates the office’s editing activities and has edited 250 books or book-length projects that have garnered many awards including five from the Mormon History Association. He and Rosalind Meno Ram were lead authors and editors of Battlefields to Temple Grounds: Latter-day Saints in Guam and Micronesia. He has served as president or chair of several professional boards, including Latter-day Saints in Publishing, Media, and the Arts. In 2016 Devan received the BYU President’s Appreciation Award. As a National Merit Scholar, he received his MA and BA degrees in English from BYU. He and his wife, Patty, live in Orem, Utah, and have four children and two grandchildren. He enjoys cycling, pickleball, singing, and magic. Devan Jensen is the executive editor and social media manager for the BYU Religious Studies Center and BYU Religious Education. He coordinates the office’s editing activities and has edited 250 books or book-length projects that have garnered many awards including five from the Mormon History Association. He and Rosalind Meno Ram were lead authors and editors of Battlefields to Temple Grounds: Latter-day Saints in Guam and Micronesia. He has served as president or chair of several professional boards, including Latter-day Saints in Publishing, Media, and the Arts. In 2016 Devan received the BYU President’s Appreciation Award. As a National Merit Scholar, he received his MA and BA degrees in English from BYU. He and his wife, Patty, live in Orem, Utah, and have four children and two grandchildren. He enjoys cycling, pickleball, singing, and magic. You can read more about the author here.

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