Hey, my loves! How are you doing today?
At first, Let me invite you to this song:
IT’S ALL ABOUT The GARDEN
Some time ago in a dream Jesus brought me to a garden full of wild flowers. He lead the way on a path to the center of it and invited me to sit with him on a bench under two trees. Puzzled by the garden that was beautiful but not cultivated I asked him about it. His answer surprised me, as he said that it was the garden of my heart. Beautiful, with a place for him and me to sit, but producing no fruit… Wait a minute Jesus, no fruit? And there I heard Holy Spirit getting all excited saying; Come and I will show you how to take care of the garden of your heart. I will show you how the heart produces fruit.
Being the hands on type of a learner Holy Spirit nudged me to start a garden in my yard. Sounds glorious, but I got so overwhelmed by the task. Having been a city dweller for the most of my life I had been confronted by lack of knowledge and skills. So much to learn! He kept reminding me about patience and small steps and drew my attention to the utmost importance of SOIL. The Soil! Pay attention to the soil!!! I got it I thought! I live in the Garden State after all! You would think that New Jersey carrying that “last name” would have soil that requires digging a hole putting a plant in and Ou-la-la! You will just watch in amazement how everything grows! Wrong! So wrong!
If you take a trip to a countryside you will encounter piles and piles of stones on the side of fields that somebody long time ago had to pick up from any land that he wanted to cultivate. And picking the stones would be just the first step.
Then you needed to plow and plow and plow and fertilize until you would get soil that would be useful for planting.
The whole idea of the hard work was just too exhausting. My yard was surrounded by trees and the soil was pure clay. There were moments of frustration where I wished I would have decided to open a ceramic workshop instead. I went for a shortcut. With help of my husband we put together a few raised beds and added the correct mixture of manure and soil and planted.
It looked great, but my yard was looking lonely and the calling of a real garden was being constantly stirred in my mind. So I asked;” Why is my heart still so unsatisfied? The garden looks lovely, the plants are growing, why is my heart still full of longing for a real garden? What is that longing about?
And then I heard a quiet whisper of a question:, “Do you love me?,” he asked. “Do you love me?,” he asked again.
I thought I did, I answered…
“Well, well, let me show you what love looks like,” he said. And he took a tiny seed and planted it in my garden.
About two months ago a movie on Prime called “Back to Eden” generated more excitement and passion about this new form of gardening . They called it gardening the Lord’s way. Encouraged by the dream and longing I got excited and followed the instructions. We got the free mulch from a tree service and set on a journey.
Remember the soil issue! What a shocker! Instead of hard work and plowing and fertilizing in gardening the Lord’s way you can just put on top of your difficult soil a 6 inch layer of tree mulch and let it sit for a year and then you can plant straight to it and will never have to water your garden again! That is a true shortcut! This is how our Father meant it in the beginning! To come to a place where we let His blanket cover the soil of our heart no matter how hard or damaged and let His mulching presence change it into a fertile land; into the heart that is able to receive love in and also produce it. Jesus is a true master gardener, teaching us to take care first of our gardens so out of the abundance in it we can share with others of the fruit he planted in our hearts.
No shortcut when it comes to those rocks! They still need to be removed!
Our Father has been calling us to a place of intimacy for a long long time. Back to the place in Genesis 3:8, where He can walk in the cool of a day in our garden and we will not hide from Him anymore.
I would like to encourage you to watch the movie, regardless of your gardening or no gardening desires. It is full of revelation.