Gardens

The Space Between the Flowers

/ pastorpete51 / Leave a comment

And the Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there he put the man whom he had formed.  Genesis 2:8 KJV

“What are you doing?!” I shouted at my friend who had weeding in the perennial garden along the back wall.

“Look I pulled all the weeds out!” he said. I shook my head in amazement at the six feet of flower bed that now lay completely devoid of growth of any kind.

“But you pulled everything else out too. Where are the flowers?” I asked in confusion.

“I’m sorry there were so many weeds that I couldn’t tell which ones were the flowers.” He said sorrowfully.

Galaxy phone june 2013 090

My fault had been in allowing the weeds to get so thick that it had become impossible to pull them out.  I had forgotten that a garden grows best when there is a space around the flowers.

Maybe that is why we sometimes feel alone and God seems silent. He has not forgotten us, but in the garden that is our soul He has chosen to make some space between the flowers. He pulls out and separates things from our lives so that we will bloom our brightest and most brilliant colors when the season is just right.

Our Garden Waves Good-bye

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We love our new home in Florida and this was the right time in our lives to come here, but I do miss our garden. This tropical climate and gray sandy soil leave me wishing for real honest brown dirt where I grew my tomatoes, peppers and zucchini. This week I know that back home we would be counting the days till the first frost on the mountain  and wishing Summer could last just a bit longer. This little poem recalls those days and I hope will put a smile on your face as well.

Imported from phone 857

Then Our Garden Waves Good-bye

While Tomatoes bow their frost tipped brows

 Mrs. Broccoli gently smiles

Mr. Green beans starts to shed his leaves

And Old Zucchini lies in piles

The Corn folks stiffly shake their stalks

And the Pumpkins wait for pie

Hot Peppers dream of summer walks

Then our Garden waves good-bye

Where Jesus is Waiting

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 Jesus heard that they had cast him out, and having found him he said, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?”       John 9:35 ESV

In thinking think about becoming almost all of us would say that we need to begin with taking time to meet with Jesus. While an early morning prayer or an hour on our knees is part of that, it is not the only thing that makes us a disciple.

In fact our greatest hope is not in our choosing to meet with Jesus but in His choosing to meet with us. If that seems strange maybe it will help you to think about it like being in the waiting room at the doctor’s office. We come in, sign our name and then we sit and watch wait for our name to be called. We cannot just decide to barge in and demand to be next. We only get to go in when the doctor is ready.

The good news for us is that our Doctor Jesus is always ready. In fact before we showed up at the clinic he was looking out the window waiting for us to come. Doctor Jesus has our diagnosis, our treatment and our plan for recovery completely prepared before we ever come. So picture your prayer time as if you were the blind man when he got thrown out of the leader’s meeting: Jesus was already standing outside waiting for him! Jesus is outside your noisy, confusing and often hurtful world waiting to meet with you. Being His disciple just means joyfully expecting to spend time with Him. He is already waiting for you in the garden. Will you join Him today there for prayer?