A garden tells us everything we need to know about what it means to be human. As someone who travels from community to community, I’ve had the privilege of seeing countless gardens – from makeshift urban rooftop plots to sprawling suburban yards to vast rural homesteads. But it was a conversation with an experienced gardener that opened my eyes to the profound nature of our partnership with the Divine.
“People think gardening is about controlling nature,” she told me, gently training a vine along its trellis. “But it’s really about partnership. We can’t create the seed, can’t command it to sprout, can’t force it to flower. What we can do is create the conditions for growth.” She paused, brushing soil from her well-worn gloves. “We work with what G-d has already set in motion.”
This wisdom illuminates one of our tradition’s most fundamental teachings: that humans are created in G-d’s image. But what does this really mean? Look closely at a garden, and you begin to understand. Like the Master Gardener, we don’t create from nothing – we can’t. Instead, we’re given the extraordinary ability to nurture, shape, and guide what already exists. We can’t invent photosynthesis, but we can decide where to plant. We can’t manufacture rain, but we can build irrigation systems. We can’t design a seed, but we can choose when to sow it.
This is the profound meaning behind G-d’s mandate in Genesis to “subdue the earth.” According to Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, of blessed memory, this directive isn’t about domination but about sacred partnership. When G-d created humans in His image, He wasn’t describing our physical form but our potential role: to be conscious partners in the ongoing work of creation.
Consider how a gardener approaches their plot. They must first observe and understand – where does the sun fall? How does water flow? What does the soil need? Then they make choices: which plants will thrive here? How should they be arranged? When should they be pruned? This is precisely how G-d invites us to engage with His world – not as passive inhabitants, but as active participants in its unfolding.
Yet this partnership also teaches us humility. Every gardener knows that despite their best efforts, some seeds won’t sprout, some plants will fail, some seasons will disappoint. We can create optimal conditions, but ultimately, growth remains a divine mystery. This tension – between our power to affect change and our inability to control outcomes – defines our role as beings created in G-d’s image.
The garden also teaches us about time and patience. No gardener plants a seed expecting immediate results. They understand that growth happens in stages, that fruit comes in its season, that some of their most important work won’t be visible for years. When we partner with G-d in tending His world, we must embrace this same perspective – seeing our role not just in the immediate moment, but as part of an unfolding divine plan.
This understanding transforms how we view our place in creation. We are neither powerless observers nor independent actors, but something far more profound: designated caretakers of G-d’s garden. Every choice we make – how we treat our bodies, how we use our resources, how we interact with others – becomes an expression of this sacred partnership.
The next time you pass a well-tended garden, observe how it embodies this divine-human collaboration. Notice how human intention works with natural growth, how boundaries guide but don’t constrain, how each plant contributes to a greater whole. This is the model for our role in creation: partners with G-d, empowered to act but humbled by mystery, capable of shaping but not controlling, responsible for nurturing what we’ve been given.
In this garden of existence, we serve as G-d’s designated gardeners, entrusted with tending not just our own plot but contributing to the flourishing of all creation. This is what it truly means to be created in G-d’s image – to accept the profound responsibility and privilege of partnership with the Divine, while remembering whose garden this ultimately is.
Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Yonatan Hambourger, y@tasteoftorah.org.
This post has been contributed by a third party. The opinions, facts and any media content are presented solely by the author, and Atlanta Jewish Connector assumes no responsibility for them. Want to add your voice to the conversation? Publish your own post here.
