Good
Morning All,
Genesis
2:8; “And the Lord God planted a
garden in Eden, in the east, and there he
There is a poem by Dorothy Frances Gurney entitled “God’s Garden”. In this poem is a verse that goes like
this.
The kiss of the sun for pardon,
The song
of the birds for mirth,--
One is nearer God's heart in a garden
Than
anywhere else on earth.
I am not sure why this poem came to
me. Perhaps the fact that there is 4 or
5 inches of snow, the wind is blowing and the low temperature is supposed to go
below zero tonight. Perhaps, I am
missing the warmth of the day, the smell of the flower, the feel of the dirt in
my hand, the serenity of just sitting in a garden and listening to the birds or
watching the squirrels. I can sit
quietly and read, or drink my coffee or just close my eyes and enjoy the whole
moment. Perhaps, as I sit in my office
and the darkness and the cold and bleak landscape, I long for the garden again.
Our faith lives can be like this as
well. There are times when it feels like
God’s love is distant and cold. We see
no beauty; we smell no beauty, we feel no joy.
Soon we feel the bleakness of
the dreary night. Soon we think the
beauty is gone forever. Yet we can rest
assured that they are not.
When times and days like this set in,
first of all recognize that the devil and our sinful nature is at work on
us. It is their attempt to deprive us of
God’s peace and comfort. We need to
remember God’s promises. We need to
remember the God’s love and grace are always there for us. At no point in time does he ever abandon us,
we may walk away or we may experience a time when the devil convinces us that
God’s love is gone like the flowers in winter time. Yet we know of God’s perfect love for us.
It is his love that is the beauty of the
garden. It is his love that gives us the
hope and the certainty that there will be a better tomorrow. God’s grace supplies us with all that we need
to see this. So when the devil battles
us and assails us with the dullness of a dreariness that seems to remove all
hope; always remember that the devil is already defeated, Christ, through his
death and resurrection, have given us the final victory and the guarantee that
we will live in that garden of beauty, walking with God in the cool of the
morning, for eternity.
If prayer and listening to God speak to you through the Scriptures fail
to help lift the cloud of darkness then find someone who you can talk to so
that they can help you see the beauty that God has for us. This is another tool that God uses to help
and comfort us, to help us find the garden.
Father
of love, there are times when I lose the garden to the devil’s false
illusions. Help me to grab onto your
wonderful grace and enlighten my life with your splendor. Be with those who are suffering now. Lift them from the pit. In the precious name of Jesus we pray, amen.
God’s Peace,
Pastor Bret
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