“I am the true grapevine, and my Father is the gardener. John 15:1 NLT
Maybe because I have been a lifelong gardener, my favorite hymn has always been “In the Garden”. Though theologians say it sounds more like a love song than a hymn and teenagers just roll their eyes wondering when it will be over, I still love those words. “And He walks with me and He talks with me,” is an invitation Jesus makes every morning, for us to spend time with Him in the garden of prayer. If you tarry you can almost hear Him calling your name, just like He called His disciples to pray with Him in the Garden of Gethsemane. Because we cannot see God now, except by faith, prayer is a blessing unique to our life on earth. In Heaven we will see Jesus face to face, but now we may only hear His voice from a distance, and yet even then, it is so sweet that the birds hush their singing at its sound. I hope you will be blessed listening to this song. I sense the presence of the Gardener of Heaven, almost every time I get to sing it!
And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. Genesis 3:8 Amp
I wonder if they remembered Once the garden gate swung closed The times they had walked with Father there While His light served as their clothes
When only echoes still remained Of the voice their souls once thrilled In the silence did they long to hear Words of the Fathers will?
Were they expecting soon the promised day And a birth on the blackest of nights Of a Child and a Lamb with God’s message for man In deep darkness The Word shining bright
The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. John 1:3 ESV
For he shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways. Psalm 91:11 KJV
In the early 1980’s I spent a couple of Summers as part of the tree crew on the Estate of Brooke Astor. Now, I wasn’t assigned the job of working there for my great talents as an arborist, but because the other guys hated working at Holly Hill (By switching a couple of letters, they had another name for the place). I discovered that remaining on the job at the Astor Estate called for a certain level of patience with the fussiness of the head grounds keeper, a quirky Scotsman who ruled his large crew like a horticultural dictator. But I loved working there because of the guests, such as the Friday we were asked to manicure the gardens with extra care, and on Monday morning finding out that President Reagan and his wife Nancy had popped in for the weekend! Another day, the special visitor was Pérez de Cuéllar, who at the time was serving as the Secretary General of the United Nations. I have no idea what he and Mrs. Astor talked about that day, but their conversations led them down the garden path that meandered between the giant hollies, that her property was famous for. And coming right behind Señor de Cuéllar and Mrs. Astor as they ambled down the path were two hugely muscular bodyguards with machine guns strapped over the backs!
After forty years, the image of those big guards watching out for their small and vulnerable charges still sticks in my mind and reminds me of the guards that God has set over us. The angels that the Bible says God has given charge over us, are definitely not the winged effeminate types depicted in some of the old paintings. These angels are big, they are powerful and when provoked have been known to wipe out entire armies which threaten their people. And today, when the news seems bent on bringing new things to be terrified about, it is more important than ever to trust that God is still in control. He hasn’t gone on break, left for vacation or decided to let us fend for ourselves. If we simply commit our way to Him, He has promised to not only direct our steps, but to assign heavenly bodyguards to watch us and to keep us as we walk down whatever garden path lies ahead for you today!
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