We have created little outdoor settings so we could have guest here and there. If you sit here (see photo below) for a drink of bottled water and one sits on the porch in same type mask and gloves they can chat.
There are various settings to enjoy a garden. We tried to make settings 12-20 ft apart for now. Mask and gloves worn. It’s working and the gardens make it worth while to have little gatherings.
Things are going to get better and as we wait we can choose to add a little beauty to God’s earth each day and enjoy nature and friends
While pausing to give thought to God and gardens I was stunned remembering the various uses God designed gardens for?
Can you guess who my guest is? Or, do we need to unmask the mystery for you? 🌸🌺😍🌝
The LORD God created the first garden, Eden which we all most likely know a story or stories related to. After Eden, the Bible mentions numerous gardens and their attributes. In the Song of Solomon 6:11 and Luke 13:19, a garden is referred to as a place of shelter and shade, and also as a place of protection ( Song of Solomon 4:12 ).
Spring 2020 garden thoughts began to create ideas unlike in past Springs. Yet, not understanding the why really but having a knowing God knew so little steps were taken to oblige the urging of the Holy Spirit. Little did we know Covid-19 would cause God to need a gathering place for sharing. We have an “honor ones lost to Covid-19” sitting garden spot. Reading garden spot. Prayer garden and Chat gardens among a few viewing only garden spots.
Do you have a favorite Bible garden story? Home garden? Park Garden? Memorial Garden. A Garden may be calling you as it called a writer to pen these words, “I come to the garden alone while the dew is still on the roses…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”
thedailylily.com 
Love your garden picture and ideas, Sara…so encouraging and needed for this hour!
Your statement, “While pausing to give thought to God and gardens I was stunned remembering the various uses God designed gardens for?”triggered a memory of one of my favorite books, “Dressing for His Glory”, you wrote quite a few years ago as some of us here on the Lily gathered in a small group to study what God had to say then.
The book cover was also a picture of one of your garden spots at that time with similar table and chairs. The caption for the photo said, “It reflects the aspiration of this composition of light coming into your soul to illuminate, inspire and nourish your spirit as you cultivate your relationship with God.”
Lesson 4 in the book was titled, “The Garden of the Lord”…He will make her desert like the GARDEN OF THE LORD. Joy and gladness will be found in her, thanksgiving and the voice of song or instrument of praise.” Isaiah 51:3 AMP
Here was written, “Some Uses of a Garden (Related to God)” that confirms/adds to what you wrote about above. We found many “activities according to the following scriptures”:
Esther 1:5: a garden was used for feasts and parties
Matthew 26:30, 36; Mark 14:32-38: a garden was a place to sing hymns as well as to pray and be taught
John 19:41: a garden was a burial site
Isaiah 65:3: and we were given an example of what a garden should not be used for
You said above, “A Garden may be calling you”…I am also reminded of a plaque in one of your gardens that has a quote that especially calls me to a garden, “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.”
“Lest we forget” has chimes that call us back to a garden it seems from Debi’s book review. Another line in the hymn, “I Come to the garden alone…” (blog) 🎶 “He speaks, and the sound of his voice is so sweet
The birds hush their singing,
And the melody that He give to me
Within my heart is to ringing.”
Try slow walking those Lyrics in your mind and listen for your emotional response. God speaks while one views the roses in full bloom dripping dew and just to hear the gentle sound of God’s voice the birds quiet their chirping. Gardens reveal God’s voice is my response🎶
I love all the beauty created for all to enjoy a break, from the stress Covid 19 may have caused. And what better place to enjoy some rest, then sitting and looking upon God’s beauty, in a garden. 💐🌺🌷🌹🌸🌻
After I discovered the inner working God was doing in my being through my limited skill of gardening The Holy Spirit introduced me to the writings of, Nelson Henderson, year of Birth 1865 and he wrote “. . . one true meaning of life is to plant trees under whose shade you do not expect to sit.” Pause and think!
Within minutes the privilege of thought of words from Saint Francis bloomed while garden sitting:
“Saint Francis, faithful to Scripture, invites us to see nature as a magnificent book in which God speaks to us and grants us a glimpse of his infinite beauty and goodness.” —Pope Francis
Questions to ponder as Rabbit Polly in hiding from humans but ear hearing ready to learn.
Are you able to identify whose shade you sit beneath today? Whose shade shall you help gift for tomorrow?
Psalm 91 gives us a glimpse of a resting spot. Oh, how we love to hop to a favorite verse 11 where God will give His angels charge over you. And, God gives us a glimpse of their mission.
In the stress crises of Covid-19 I personally find going to the garden alone while the dew is still on the roses keeps my mind and my nose out of self-pity, angry, fear, anxiety, worry and other negative vibes of people going on with all they have missed. Their broken plans. I ask the big book? Bible why and The Spirit of the living God answers: “Submit to God and be at peace with him; in this way prosperity will come to you.” Job 22::21
So often a road block and we master a second option and then we build stair steps to our heaven which leads us to an attic. Then months or years later we wonder why? Did we fail to “Submit to God?” Oh my why be at peace with him for breaking my plans? Why not angry? Why not self-pity? I’m going to do it my way as Sarah did when she lead her husband to Hagar.
This someway mirrors my short story of having my plans cancelled of joining in on the birth of my first grandchild. Then again, cancel a perfect planned trip for Mother’s Day and why not tell God she will be walking or, or, before I see her. Oooops, yes, a garden spot says, sit, wait He Knows the perfect time for all things. Arrogant head of mine might say I can drive my car and go. Foolishness may set in when my plans get cancelled or delayed. Yet, let me finish the verse from Job, “be at peace with Him,…” “Submit to God and be at peace with him; in this way prosperity will come to you.” Job 22::21 Selah!
I sat for a few minutes on a rather hot and sunny day today and really appreciated the gift of shade.
Sara’s quote from Nelson Henderson , “one true meaning of life is to plant trees under whose shade you do not expect to sit.” Pause and think!”, does just that.
Hmmm, if you don’t expect to sit under a tree you planted it could be because you planted one for someone else to sit under one day and benefit from; or planting for a future generation to reap the benefits of its shade as many nice shade trees take a long time to grow to the point where they produce quality shade.
And then Sara asks, “Are you able to identify whose shade you sit beneath today? Whose shade shall you help gift for tomorrow?”
As I paused to think about whose shade I sit beneath, this verse came to my mind from Psalm 121:5: “The LORD watches over you– the LORD is your shade at your right hand;”
I also thought that God’s people are called trees and God is the one who plants them. “That they may be called trees of righteousness, The planting of the LORD, that He may be glorified.”” Isaiah 61:3
“That person is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither– whatever they do prospers.” Psalm 1:3
So I am thinking that in order to be shade for someone else, we must first allow the Lord to plant us as a fruitful tree so we have shade and fruit for others to benefit from and then we can help plant and water someone else so they can be a tree.(I Cor 3:6)
I am very appreciative that I can sit under a lot of shade here on the Lily through the Glory of God’s words through Sara (Isaiah 4:5,6).
Mr. Henderson sure did give us a lot to “Pause and think!” on about shade.
As I sit on my beautiful porch and look at the trees, I notice a number of small trees growing up closely around the mature trees providing them protection from the winds and providing shade; while the older ones grow and will one day die and fall to the ground, or cut up as firewood to provide light to someone. A tree which is forever giving even after death. We see those strong trees in the Bible plus authors who have filled the libraries of earth and heaven giving testimony and praise to the God tree that they leaned on for strength, peace, direction, joy, love. Jesus’s shade provided to them as they walked close to them as they walked in His gifting to them. We see Jesus in the garden at night until the early morning hours under the shade of Father God.
Sara’s quote from Nelson Henderson , “one true meaning of life is to plant trees under whose shade you do not expect to sit.” What a wonderful quote to think upon. Who would know what tree/ministry God would place us under. God is a God of adventure, as we walk with Him, He will show us the way. There is a saying I love. “Where God leads, He will clear the way.”
Sara also asked, “Are you able to identify whose shade you sit beneath today? Whose shade shall you help gift for tomorrow?
I know as Debi does, that I have been called to thedailylily ministry under Sara’s tutelage. Yesterday, I listened to a sermon online by Jenetezen Franklin who said that we need to lean into a tree (for me this is ministry of thedailylily) so in our weaknesses we will not fall away from God.
Whose shade will this ministry help gift tomorrow? We may /may not know until we meet Jesus.
We all in turn need to lean into greatest tree, the tree of life, Jesus Christ. How do we find this tree? In the great book, the Bible, it tells all about Jesus. We need to accept Jesus as our Savior who took on our debt of sin in our lives. How did He pay? He died on a cross, beat until no one recognized Him, spate on, nailed to the cross, crown of thorns on His head without cloths, mocked and asking God for forgiveness of each of our sins. He is the one we need to lean on. Jesus said in John 14: 6, “I am the Way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.” Remember God the Father can not look on sin. Having paid our debt for sin, God can look on the redeemed/ those who believe in Jesus.
Rena, your post lead me to a scripture song our church sung for years. It seemed to minister to someone somewhere anytime and it still gives us notice that the hope of being called a Tree of Righteous, planted by the Lord to glorify Him after He found us laying in a heap of ashes.
The Bible says that he will give us beauty for ashes. In Bible times it was the custom for the people of that day in great times of mourning and difficulty to lay in ashes. Just think about that. You’ve got a problem in your life and you just sit down in a pile of ashes. There is nothing beautiful about ashes. Yet, we don’t have to stay there, 🎶“He gives us beauty for ashes.”🎶
“To appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the LORD, that he might be glorified.”
Isaiah 61:3…”
“Submit to God and be at peace with him; in this way prosperity will come to you.” Job 22::21”
This verse that Sara shared and wrote about can really bring stability to us in a world that seems to change daily as I thought on it and the need to follow its advice.
Sara quoted, ““Saint Francis, faithful to Scripture, invites us to see nature as a magnificent book in which God speaks to us and grants us a glimpse of his infinite beauty and goodness.” —Pope Francis”
God’s creatures and creation seem to submit to Him and the way He made them, and their patterns to live by. Just as Rena wrote about the “small trees growing up closely around the mature trees providing them protection”.
Fruit trees adhere to their fruiting cycle; plants submit to the classification they were assigned to; seed germination is dictated by specific temperature, etc. laws that God designed….
And in Psalm 104:19 I read, “He made the moon to mark the seasons, and the sun knows when to go down.”
If the moon and sun did not submit to God there would be chaos and destruction.
I think there is a lot to learn from ““Submit to God and be at peace with him; in this way prosperity will come to you.” Job 22::21”
Debi, I think you have found “submit” to be the vaccine to prevent failure. You have used God’s Word to clarify It’s meaning, purpose and understanding. I would like to storyline a truth by a message I received this week. My Gniece from Edenton NC moved to Helsinki Finland.Temperatures and weather patterns are vastly different than her norm. In her home state and nation she had been an OK young beginner gardener but in her new home land she Is struggling with her little garden plot. So she writes me this,
“I need some gardening tips. I’m becoming a notorious back thumb in this climate.”
I respond:
“And, climate can surely give gloom to a bloom! 🧐 Try, love letters with your words🎶♥️“
And, the ball bounced on to try and find the right plants for her new climate. Yes, submit to the “laws that God designed.” (See Debi’s Post)