For quite a long time, I have been buried under my “To Do” list. My paid job, house repairs, upkeep on our property, a greenhouse full of starts and seedlings, planting a garden, helping my mom with her projects…so much “stuff.”
I kept saying, “I need a break.” “I need some rest!”
There’s an old saying, “Be careful what you ask for—sometimes you get it,” And it doesn’t look like any answer you might have anticipated. Frankly, I couldn’t see a way to take a break. Everything I was doing was important and needed to be done.
In a split second, my reality changed after I slipped and fell in a woodland and broke my ankle in a pretty spectacular way. The team at the ER did a “live sedation” and tried to get the broken pieces back into a semblance of order. When I woke up, this is what I saw.
So…I entered a period of rest. My poor mother came out of retirement and took up a full-time nursing job!
I quickly saw this as a different kind of opportunity. An opportunity to read, to listen to Dr. David Jeremiah, to re-visit some old classics. It was like God was saying, “Come sit down here and be with me.” What a blessing! Could God have caused a broken ankle? Certainly at the very least it was “allowed.” It was allowed to happen. In one of his sermons one day, Dr. Jeremiah made a seemingly random comment: “God loves us so much sometimes He’ll (I don’t know) break our leg.” Mom and I kind of gasped and chuckled. Well…
Yes, we live in a garden, and it’s wonderful, and we love it.
But being able to sit with God in the garden of His love and grace, hearing the words I need to hear. Reading the words I need to read. Feeling the love and mercy and grace that I so desperately need. I think God might say, “My child, your life can be a garden. One that blesses others. One that displays My (God’s) beauty and welcome. One that reflects the light of Christ.”
When I look back on this interlude in my life, I truly believe I will be profoundly grateful for it. It has convicted me. It has humbled me. It has made me so grateful for what I have.
It’s been wonderful to sit down and Be with God.
Thoughts From the Garden 