Never Alone

Today’s article is more about my thoughts as a praise to the One who loves me (and you).

Thoughts weave through my mind today like a lazy river — for that I am so very thankful, (the slow thoughts), as oftentimes my mind flies and has trouble with focus. As my good friend Marian likes to sum me up – SQUIRREL!!! And off I go. This song came to mind in the midst of tending my garden, my grandmother’s favorite and one I played at Gilbert’s memorial service, seems like just the other day.

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

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

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

Every time I listen to this song, I get tears. Especially when He speaks, and the sound of His voice is so sweet that the birds stop their singing. My mind jumps to the silence in heaven for half an hour in Revelation. No one has ever heard absolute silence.

But today as I water my garden, (both a chore and a joy), my thoughts go to our Gardener in tender feelings of gratitude. Does He go out somewhat like that, patiently tending, pruning, watering and looking with patient expectation for the fruit? James 5:7-8 says the farmer waits for the precious fruit, waiting patiently for it. I know I do, (well maybe not as patiently as I should). I think about the joy I feel as I see that tomato grow larger, believing that my amateur banana peel trick may have helped. I pray that translates into real life in pointing others to Christ.

Each plant, the herbs, every flower, the aroma and buzzing sounds — each brings something to mind. Gardening can be a dirty business, both because of the visible things like dirt, mud, bugs, and for the unseen like sudden disease and pestilence, drought, and heat. I am not the Master Gardener, but I search for answers to save a plant. Why is the basil yellow and floundering? Why have the serranos not put forth fruit yet? (I need those). Why is my usually flourishing rosemary look like a dwarf plant? Seems the jalapenos and habaneros are behind them all. And the strawberries? I don’t know if they’ll ever peek out.

I have 3 different kinds of tomatoes; 2 plums, 1 Giant, and one ‘Better boy’. I look at the leaves and see some suspicious areas and pinch them off. My little blue dragonfly comes right up to me, as if to inspect my work closely. Makes me smile, he seems to land on the leaves of each plant I am busy with, as if genuinely interested. I like my little garden friends (except the wasps, can’t say I’m thankful for them).

I move over to the dwarf blackberries and see some of the berries are starting to turn color and I smile and rejoice in excitement. I wonder when I should pick them, or rather if I will get to them before a Robin or the dive-bombing barn sparrows raid. Come to think of it, an Osprey was suspiciously close overhead in the tree last evening. I wonder if he was counting the days, or will he stick to his fish? 

My original two hanging Mother’s Day flowers (not sure what kind — a mixture of trumpet shaped flowers in various sizes), became 5 hanging plants in order to grace the length of our deck. Yellow and orange blend, Purple with stripes and bright Fuschia. The dark pink and vibrant yellow hang in the center where my two hummingbirds, an adult female and a rust-colored baby boy with a striped neck, come out to imbibe often. The older, a little bolder, sometimes ventures on the deck to scold and buzz me for being too close to her flowers.

At the end of our deck hangs an all-white variety, seemingly not as interesting, yet it fills my nose with a aroma I can’t quite grasp. Is that what it’s like for those who haven’t yet understood His grace? A fragrance that has diffused to all, yet only a few will seek to find out what that aroma is and find life?

Now thanks be to God who always leads us in triumph in Christ, and through us diffuses the fragrance of His knowledge in every place. For we are to God the fragrance of Christ among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing. To the one we are the aroma of death leading to death, and to the other the aroma of life leading to life. And who is sufficient for these things? 2 Corinthians 2:14-16

I sit back to enjoy the background orchestra; the tittering of little birds in constant conversation, the humming of engines slowing down to the no-wake zone. Children sing-song in play, their cheerful voices echoing across the lake, attended it seems, by the same rhythm as the little waves that lap the shore. I smile as across the lake I can hear a dog named Chester being summoned to come out to go potty. I wonder what Chester looks like. I’m so thankful for the good we have now, but I know I have not a clue of what’s ahead for those of us who love Him (1 Cor 2:9) — but what a day that will be.

There is so much to see everywhere I look, yet instantly reminded, so much that I do not see. Every day there is a plethora of that which touches on every sense, accompanied by the invisible things the Word says we clearly understand (Heb 11:1; Rom 1:20). We are fearfully and wonderfully made by His Marvelous works — the Unseen One that we will behold soon, face to face (Ps 139:14; Heb 11:27; 1 Cor 13:12). Our Savior who made everything, also holds all these things together (Col 1:16-17), and they all declare His glory, (Ps 19:1-5).

Day by day, the blind still lead the blind into the ditch, never sensing the fragrance of Christ. He desires none should perish. You’ve seen this verse at football games. You’ve likely heard this verse. But do you HEAR it?

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. John 3:16

He (Jesus, who is God in the flesh-man) paid the ultimate price. He laid down own life willingly that we might live (John 15:13). He took His life back up again as He said He would, proving He is God, and having victory over death, sin and the grave (John 10:17-18; 1 Cor 15:50-58).

I watch as one set of kayakers slowly paddle one way, while others head in the opposite direction. Soberly reminding me of the believing and the nonbelieving — one way is the way leading to life, the other death. I pray more will come to a saving knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ.

I never liked poetry when I was a child, never understood it – it seemed flat to me. Flowery words that evoked no emotion, but then again, I was a child. Now as I think on Creation’s song, the many ways the Heaven’s and the earth declare His glory — that Poetry in His Word becomes like the cup that runneth over to me. The chorus on that day will be beyond awe and then some.

Shout joyfully to the Lord, all the earth;
Break forth in song, rejoice, and sing praises.
Sing to the Lord with the harp,
With the harp and the sound of a psalm,
With trumpets and the sound of a horn;
Shout joyfully before the Lord, the King.

Let the sea roar, and all its fullness,
The world and those who dwell in it;
Let the rivers clap their hands;
Let the hills be joyful together before the Lord,
For He is coming to judge the earth.
With righteousness He shall judge the world,
And the peoples with equity. Psalm 78