Do You Have a Secret Garden? (Part 2)

Did you know miracles can take place in the garden? Peace can envelop your heart and become a well of joy, springing up within your very being. Mary Lennox, heroine of “The Secret Garden”, thought at first that the garden was dead. But she discovered to her great joy that the garden was not dead, but was, in fact, “wick”. When a plant becomes dormant for the winter, it may appear dead and dry. But if you peel back the outer surface of the stem, just beneath lies new green wood. With help from the gardener, through the process of pruning, digging, fertilizing, cleaning, trimming, and clearing back what is dead, the plant begins to waken with the soft kiss of spring. It sends forth new shoots and develops buds which then become blossoms, and at last a myriad of brilliant, fragrant roses, lilacs, daffodils, and other beautiful flowers.

Are you “wick”? Do you feel as I do sometimes – emotionally drained, spiritually peaked, and otherwise “blah”? Have you stopped soaking up sunshine or searching for blessings? Have your songs hit a sour note, and your life become a wearisome maze instead of an adventure around every corner? Maybe you need to return to your garden. Remember? “And He walks with me, and He talks with me, and He tells me I am His own. And the joy we share as we tarry there, none other has ever known.” The Gardener never left; He's still there waiting for you to return each day. He wants to clean you up, and prune you, and help you bear fruit an “hundred-fold”. “And the LORD shall guide thee continually, and satisfy thy soul in drought, and make fat thy bones: and thou shalt be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water, whose waters fail not.” Isaiah 58:11 You and I need to stay close to the Gardener, take long walks with Him, and drink deeply from His Word. Sometimes it hurts to be pruned, but the end result can be beautiful.