You may not know it by the condition of my houseplants, but I’m a flower child at heart. I even got my degree in horticulture and worked as a florist for many years.
My love for flowers and nature started when I was young and would spend time with my grandmother. Her house was surrounded by gorgeous flower beds and her front porch was adorned with hanging baskets. That love of flowers and plants rubbed off on me.
As I grew up, I always helped Daddy in the garden and with the flower beds around the house. He wanted the flowers to be nice, so Momma could look out the front windows and see all the blooms. We had a rose garden and a large gladiolus bed. Because I loved my Mam-ma’s hanging baskets, our front porch was lined with hanging baskets of every sort as well.
Living in the south, it would be too hot to work in the flowers mid day, so I often would get up early and work in the flowers. Something about getting up early and spending time in God’s glorious creation, always made my heart sing His praises.
Looking at the delicate petals of the flowers and seeing all the intricate, colorful parts, and watching the bees buzz from bloom to bloom....ahhh...it was just heavenly. Not to mention, the roses had sweetest of fragrances.
Just as those flower gardens beckoned me each and every morning, the Lord beckons now. Every day, if my heart is listening, I can hear Him say “Gayle, come walk and talk with me. Come and abide with me.”
“I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing. As the Father loved Me, I also have loved you; abide in My love.”
John 15:5, 9 NKJV
On many occasions in the New Testament, we are told that Jesus went off to pray. (Mark 1:35, Luke 5:16, Luke 6:12) If Jesus needed time to abide with His Father, how much more so for me!
These last few months, as I have shared before with you, I have sensed the Lord drawing me back very close to His side. Calling me to truly abide with Him. He is whispering ever so sweetly to be “in the garden” with Him. To meet Him while the “dew is still on the roses.”
When I choose to meet Him there “the sound of His voice is so sweet the birds hush their singing.”
Are you listening for His whisper? Are you longing to abide with Him?
If not, you can ask Him to help you hunger for Him. You can call out to Him and He will meet you “in the garden.”
The joy you “share as you tarry there, none other has ever known.”
Art behind the art:
Spring is springing here in Mississippi and the daffodils are popping everywhere. The page was started with a light watercolor wash. Using the Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps daffodil stamp from Spring Blossoms was perfect on the In the Garden page in my hymnal. The butterfly from Made New was stamped on vellum, colored, fussy cut and then adhered on foam tape. I added the word "abide" with the Typewriter Alpha stamps. Lastly, I added some visual interest with Texture Tiles 1 and Texture Tiles 2.
I encourage you to take some time and walk in the garden with Him.
Until next time,
Gayle
Patio Ponderings
Editor's Note:
In The Garden Lyrics by Charles Austin Miles (1912)
Source: HymnLyrics.org
I come to the garden alone
While the dew is still on the roses
And the voice I hear falling on my ear
The Son of God discloses.
Refrain
And He walks with me, and He talks with me,
And He tells me I am His own;
And the joy we share as we tarry there,
None other has ever known.
He speaks, and the sound of His voice,
Is so sweet the birds hush their singing,
And the melody that He gave to me
Within my heart is ringing.
Refrain
I’d stay in the garden with Him
Though the night around me be falling,
But He bids me go; through the voice of woe
His voice to me is calling.
Refrain
Words: Charles Austin Miles (1912)
