Enter the Poison Garden
Have you ever heard of the Poison Garden?
The Alnwick Garden [located in Alnwick, UK] plays host to the small but deadly Poison Garden—filled exclusively with around 100 toxic, intoxicating, and narcotic plants. The boundaries of the Poison Garden are kept behind black iron gates, only open on guided tours.
Visitors are strictly prohibited from smelling, touching, or tasting any plants.
Entry to The Poison Garden is included with your day ticket but please note tours are subject to availability.
Wait, what?! A garden filled with nothing but poisonous plants?!
A combination of dark, ivy-covered tunnels and flame-shaped beds creates an educational garden full of interest and intrigue, where the most dangerous plants are kept within giant cages. ... The Poison Garden is home to around 100 species of dangerous, toxic and harmful plants, each of which has the potential to severely injure you! These are some of the most dangerous to look (but not touch) out for on your tour:
Laburnum
Atropa Belladonna
Helleborus Odorus
Monkshood
Ricinus communis
Giant Hogweed
Opium Poppy
Gympie- Gympie
… and hundreds more!
Aparently, though quite deadly, these poisonous plants can be quite beautiful and alluring ...
This world is a veritable poison garden filled with all manner of temptations and worldly pursuits that can quite literally kill us!
God calls us to wander through this Poison Garden circumspectly, careful to not "touch" the poison all around us.
Long story short, enter the Poison Garden careful to obey all the warning signs!
"For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord" (Romans 6:23, ESV).
"Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned—" (Romans 5:12, ESV).
"Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death" (James 1:15, ESV).
"But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die" (Genesis 2:17, ESV).
It's An Uphill Battle
According to Greek mythology, Sisyphus was a king who angered the gods by his craftiness and trickery, even having once cheated death. His eternal punishment was to push a boulder up a steep hill, only to watch it roll back down just before he reached the top. Sisyphus would then have to start over, pushing the boulder back up again, in a never-ending cycle of effort without achievement.
Thus, the term "Sisyphean endeavor" refers to a task that is both laborious and futile. It represents the endlessness futility of pursuing worldly success
No matter how many times we push our boulder up the hill of worldly gain and materialism, it always comes right back down. This is the reality we all face until God infuses divine purpose into our otherwise pointless lives.
"Now this I say and testify in the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds" (Ephesians 4:17, ESV).
"Many are the plans in the mind of a man, but it is the purpose of the Lord that will stand" (Proverbs 19:21, ESV).
The Rat Race
Lily Tomlin's version of a Jackie Gleason quote is as follows:
"The trouble with the rat race is that even if you win you're still a rat."
The Apostle Paul spoke of a different kind of race. One in which those who run are transformed, not into rats but into the image of Christ!
"I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith" (2 Timothy 4:7).