Do you think there is something to the fact that the Lord placed Adam and Eve in an interconnected garden as the ecosystem of their flourishing? What about Babel and the disconnectedness as discipline and judgment?

You’ve seen the row of potted plants in the garden section of your local home improvement store. Row after row of flowers, succulents, bushes, evergreens. They are nestled together for hours. Rubbing shoulders for days.

But are they together? Are they connected? Not at all. Sure, they are next to each other, but they aren’t connected in the soil, they aren’t sharing the spray from the hose. Their roots are restricted. They don’t pull and tug when one is moved.

These plants are together, but they are also alone.

How many of our church communities are just like these potted plants?

Sunday after Sunday, class upon class, and home groups that run for years—it’s easy to sit next to each other and never be connected to one another. Close but closed off.

Proximity doesn’t equate community. Community isn’t mere closeness.

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