We are immediately assaulted by the humid air. We welcome it, rushing to drink it in.
The air outside is colorless, frigid. Here in this protected garden world, the colors seem almost reckless in their abundance. The deep smell of green washes over us, reminds us of what we once knew, beckons us to that which is still unknown.
For a brief snapshot in time, we escape the Endless Slush of Winter Grey, Car-Swallowing Potholes, and Flood-Threatening Mountains of Snow.
We breathe deeply. Our spirits are wooed to life.
I can’t help but think of all the times that gardens appear in the Holy Love Letter.
...Eden’s Garden, where First Man and First Woman know the soul-quenching wholeness of strolling with God in the cool of evening.
...Solomon’s Garden, where the Lover and the Beloved sing of a passion more powerful than death.
...The Garden of Oil Presses, where the Gardener’s Son surrenders himself to Love’s Ultimate Mission.
...The Garden-Yet-to-Come, where Love and Faithfulness become roots growing deep by the shores of a River Named Life.
I think of these gardens, and the many ways in which the Master Gardener wants to work in the soil of my own life.
“Come away,
come away,
Beloved One.
Beloved One.
Can you not see?
Winter is passed.
Spring is unfolding
and the flowers appear.
Come away with me…”
and the flowers appear.
Come away with me…”
...away from the Endless Slush of Sin.
...away from Soul-Swallowing Potholes.
...away from the Flood-Threatening Mountains of this life.
He woos my spirit, this Master Gardener, with the invitation to stroll once again in the cool of evening, towards restored fellowship, towards a place in which earth’s most vibrant greens pale into frigid colorlessness.
And there in the garden, the human and Holy sing together:
"I am my Beloved's, and the Beloved is mine."
May it be so.
~Lisa
~Lisa
In loving memory of Martha, who passed away this morning.
You lived ~ and died ~ with Love, Courage and Faithfulness.
May you delight in the gardens your Savior has planted for you.
You lived ~ and died ~ with Love, Courage and Faithfulness.
May you delight in the gardens your Savior has planted for you.