In The Garden- Wednesday, April 18, 2007
You know the old song...I walk in the garden with Him...and then a newer song arrives....Cindy Morgan I recall...Oh, dance in the Garden, Dance in the Garden with Him...and yet He gives yet a newer song birthed from the Spirit, a song of angels in the garden.
The Lord is pouring from the spirit today to bring recall of the garden. In the beginning there was a garden. This is the one I am reminded of. But going back, sitting on the edge of the bed I think, drawing out a plan to one day come to pass. I don't really know now what it means because I can only imagine in my feeble mind. This heart is reaching for the word only a minute or two a day now but God was there on the end table. My little girl, only a tender age of 3, now turning 18 soon and my precious son but a year. 15 years ago on a pad of paper with scanty pencil markings. Not an artist by any means and certainly not a gardener. No green thumb here Lord. I scarcely can purchase spring flowers without a call to a friend who knows what to buy. Some sun, some partial, some lots of water, some thriving on dryness. And some things...all things....work for His greater glory and this is one of them. He knows what He is doing and ever reminding me that I do not!...Only in Him.
As I write this morning I ask, Lord why did you give this to me? This vision of the lavish garden and prompt me to sketch it out? Where is it? Show me where I have it tucked away. It means something. You have reminded me periodically in my life about it after all these years. It felt like and still feels like works of the flesh to execute. Hot sun, bugs, lack of knowledge as I have already said.
The end...oh it is beautiful. The butterflies, the ponds, the fountains, the pathways, the bushes, the sunshine and oh my ...the trees! The color, so real and rich that it looks like a fairy tail land. Was this for a home I would one day live in? Well, my spirit says...Absolutely. But here in the this flesh suit, I wonder? Is it when my children are grown to tackle? Oh, that all sounds so not like me. Is it a teaching tool for my children? Is it for the summer? What is it about this garden? Why do you bring it to me again, Lord? Perhaps to know that man plans his steps but it is the Lord who orders them (paraphrased). I was just dreaming...a dreamer at the time. Joseph had dreams too though. We dream now. Oh, to walk in this garden, through the mazes...paths of life. I love mazes...so fun to see the where they end. Kinda reminds me of playing in the woods down all the paths Pappaw would carve as he cleared the woods and lay gravel when I was little. Or the flat stepping stone paths that was lain leading down to the creek where I'd play. It was an imaginative playground and fun I had! This garden...it is so perfect though. Perfection of God. No way that human hands could put this together and make it look like I saw it. It couldn't be duplicated. It would be a mess. This is flesh and what I saw was Spirit. Show me Father about the beauty of that garden, Your Garden. You are a good God and how I love you!
Revelation of the Beauty- Saturday, April 21, 2007
Ah! Your answer comes in your manifest presence...as always!You ar so very faithful. That's one reason I love you so, Lord. Whatever is made manifest is light. Your answer comes sometimes so quick that our ear needs to be so very attentive to listen.
In the beginning...Yes, indeed it was the beginning...of my life so to speak.. I saw the difference between heaven and hell being manifested there, as close as anyone would get to it here on Earth...as I seen it, through the tender heart of a child.
Perhaps that is why I see things so black & white. I used to beat myself up for that but no longer because the black is black and the white is light and any thing exposed in the light is of God; there is room to breathe and run and play and no religion and no lack in the white side. The white is heaven, full of our hearts desires that He longs to impart to us.
My heaven was spent on Saturdays. Truly my heaven is even still, thank you Lord, spent on Saturday. I would arrive on Friday night, in time for dinner, spend all the next day in the garden, in the woods & garden, nevertheless, in the garden then on Sunday night I went back. I was very young and carefree.
My weekends were spent in what I knew to be heaven, in the garden. It was really a woods with gravel pathways carved filled with rocks. Trees trimmed and some just for me so that I could climb to the top and shake out all the cherries, climb down and put them in a big bowl for Mammaw so she'd bake me and Pap a cherry cobbler, piping hot with milk poured over the top.
Pathways of stone steps leading down to the creek bed with a trickling stream. My chubby, white bunny, Fluffy, to play with and feed. The secret path- as I called it, that led to the rear entrance to a second garden surrounded by fence to the back gate. Paths of bricks, a fountain, gorgeous flowers, morning glory vines that grew over the archway and marigold surrounding it all to keep the stray bunnies out from eating Pappaw's green onions that we talked Mammaw into planting amidst the flowers. I would eat the green and he would eat the real hot bulb. Mammaw would tease that she spent more hours standing on her head pulling weeds there than anything else in the world.
I would play endlessly and have to be coaxed in from playing house alone in the peacock cage. One side was made like a tall a frame house and Pappaw built benches to sit inside. Harold and Henrietta I remember calling them would come and eat grain from my hand that we'd buy from the mill in town. When mischief would rise up in me I would throw rocks at the chickens, well not all of them...just trying to hit the one...not trying to hurt him at all...just wanted to see him jump. That rooster would flog me every time I'd try to feed him. Pappaw would get upset and grab him quickly up by his two legs and hold him upside down and say something like..."Why, if you only knew that you could be dinner right now" then he'd shout "Git" and toss him aside, for him to flip to his feet.
The surrounding of the hearts I was around, though I loved them were without God. I did not realize this until I asked to receive salvation myself during this time. My heart would later grieve so hard and for many, many years because at the tender age of 13 I thought I could have done more to save her and 7 years ago, my Pappaw. The reception just wasn't there...Not to mention my own faith wasn't where it is now. I prayed for them much............................
Colossians tells us as well as Revelations...go back to the first love. The first love for me was God and His creation he has shown me in prayer. I am not surprised. It is the confession of my lips. He took me to that place where He longs to bring us all back to...Heaven, as I saw it though a child's eyes. It was so precious to me! That is right Lord, no way, that human hand could have put this together. They did not. You did. Oh, you took me back to that place, that first love I had one day a week for a few important years...the one you'd use to teach me in prayer almost 30 years later. God, You are so good! Amazing...simply amazing!
So, as I think on just knowing the deadline is coming to write a letter to a sister in Christ who is moving in a deeper way with the Lord this weekend, I get flustered on what to write. Then he speaks...show her what I have shown you. Teach and impart to her. This is what I have taught you to do. Ok, I think I will. I pray this help her to be brought back to that heavenly place in the garden. The letter was addressed on the envelope from a friend. Our friend is in God so this is what I wrote from my Spirit, believing it to be shared ...
Dear Friend, It's your Weekend! God Bless You! Put away everything that hinders you ...no worries, no concerns and go to a place you have never been...to a place in the garden with God. Smell the roses as you walk past and see the radiant colors all over. You are young and vibrant...not a care in the world...no bills, no schedules, no midnight feedings. You are young and full of life, playing in the garden of God.
The trickle of the stream leading down the creek is mesmerizing as you walk upon each stone. You hear the birds chirping and the trees are lavish and green. You can't wait to see what is down there. Stepping stones in the creek. You take your shoes off and play.
The colors leading back up from the creek on another path in the garden are heavenly , not like any garden you have ever walked in or seen but so familiar, like a fairy tale. There are butterflies all around and you hear birds chirping. A white bunny hops behind a tree. Spring time. The trees full of fruit, bountiful and seemingly perfect. Have some of your favorite!
Pathways...which one to take? What's at the end? Mazes full of fun.. No path lead to destruction. This is the garden of God. The smell is familiar but not earthly. Fountain and ponds makes you stop and want to listen & rest. You truly are resting. The sound is compelling. Full of Spirit! I am your Rest! This is your heaven. The garden that I give to you. Flowers line the paths with abundant color, kinds you have never pictured before. The garden is large, full of fruit trees. A small budding cherry tree sits over a rest area to sit and pray.
He says Come closer, my child! You hear in prayer. I have so much more to give to you. So much more than you can know. Sit with me in the cool of the day and let's talk. Cast your burdens of life my way.
I have already taken them. This is for you. Let me help you to know how much I care. My love for you, my Daughter is rich and never ending ...unconditional. That truly means...nothing matters outside of you and me he says. He truly loves you and will reveal mysteries to you. Sit with me and talk for awhile. I have longed to spend this time- just you and me. I will love you forever through all eternity because my love does not end! Nothing can ever change that. I look forward to you, my bride, becoming more and more like me every day until completely in my likeness. Sit and rest your head on my chest and give to me all your deepest desires and I will fulfuill your dreams my sweet child! I have a jealous love for you.
(This is what it felt like to me to be loved with all the beauty of creation round about so as to share)
