PHOTO: Who wouldn't feel close to God alongside The Hudson River?
Why did Dorothy Frances Gurney write, “One is nearer God's heart in a garden than anywhere else on earth?”
There are lots of other places in the world where I could feel close to my creator. The Rockies shout of his greatness and The Adirondacks are green with his goodness. The mighty Hudson River is in my backyard and I never tire of its beauty.
In all of these places, I sense God.
So, what’s with an 10’ x 10’ garden? It’s because I partnered with God. I cannot make it rain nor bring the sunshine. But I can do my part. Anyone who has ever been in partnership with another person or group knows how close it can bring you to one another.
“The gardener’s share, though small, is indispensable and laborious. When God planted a garden He set a man over it and set the man under Himself. When He planted the garden of our nature and caused the flowering, fruiting loves to grow there, He set our will to ‘dress’ them.”
C.S. Lewis, The Four Loves, Page 150.
There’s a choice to bring out what’s been set before us like a jeweler sets the diamond just so. The radiance from the ring may have taken a patient God thousands of years to form, but without a miner and a jeweler’s touch, the diamond would never have been perceptible no less showcased.
When someone notices your garden or if they are fortunate enough to stroll through its paths, they squarely get the idea that God and a human have touched one another.
PORTAL TO HEAVEN: Gardens are living metaphors of how our soul and its work magnify God. Even the most cynical onlooker will figure out that we could never derive such radiance strictly from ourselves.
your partnership in the gospel…Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven…for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure…Draw near to God and He will draw near to you.
Philippians 1:5 ESV, Matthew 5:16 KJV, Philippians 2:13 NASB, James 4:8 NASB
COMMENTS:
On "Man, Is She Beautiful!"
I believe there is a great reason that we are attracted to gardens. God placed us in the garden of Eden where our job was to take care all of this beautiful life around us! Gardens are constant reminder of God‘s beauty and creativity and life with Him! Deep within our hearts we all desire to go back to the garden of Eden and be with God!
FRANK WRAY, DELMAR, NY