My Heart's Garden

My Heart’s Garden

By Lisa A. White, 2012

He led me down a garden’s edge, white alyssum blessed my feet

We spoke of purpose, life, and love; and who I was to be.

And in the garden of my heart were many, many weeds

But with his love he cast them out and planted countless seeds.

He told me of the beauty my work for Him would bring

And even when the tears would fall, I still had cause to sing.

So in the garden of my heart the seeds began to grow

And with His grace he covered me when harvesting was slow.

He walked with me through times of drought, when vines began to die

And pruned out all the waste and ruin, then held me when I cried.

So in the garden of my heart, a new life came in Spring

And with His hope he touched my heart and colored it with green.

He embraced me when my time was through, my story was complete

And took me into Heaven, and sat me at His feet.

Now in the garden of my heart is all I was made to be

Because he took and rooted it into eternity.

The Family Bible and The Old Farmer’s Almanac

"You cannot open a book without learning something."  -Old Farmer’s Almanac

Spring blew in like a lion while I slept last night and I woke up to sound of lingering rain, a brisk, cool breeze, and birds chirping a little louder than usual.  I didn’t even realize that it was the first day of spring until a dear friend mentioned it, but my soul felt it.  I felt especially joyful this morning as I eavesdropped on songbirds chattering, drank in the cool refreshing wind that whisper sweet assurance that the worst of the storm is over, and thanked God for the blessing of rain, as I just planted my vegetable garden just a few days ago.  I didn’t have the nerve to look at it this morning before rushing off to work, I am praying that the chaos of the storm didn’t wash away all my hard work, but even so I will accept whatever may come.  The rain is most important.  It is truly amazing that the most peaceful times truly follow the storms.

According to the Old Farmer's Almanac, today, the first day of Spring is a best day to cut hair to retard growth, mow to retard growth, dig post holes, harvest, wean, quit smoking, potty train, jar jams/jellies, wash wooden floors, paint, start diet to lose weight, kill wild onions and weeds, and host a party.

The premiere issue of The Old Farmer's Almanac was published in 1792 during George Washington's first term as president.  An almanac, by definition, records and predicts astronomical events (the rising and setting of the Sun, for instance), tides, weather, and other phenomena with respect to time.  I got this information from www.almanac.com.

Second only to the Bible, this is my favorite publication, I guess because it is old school and it talks about gardening.  I have a true bond with the traditions of old and love to explore their history and investigate the fact that documents written so long ago still have extraordinary credence in our world today.  I think Randy Travis said it best in his song “The Family Bible and The Old Farmer’s Almanac”:

“My father's father was the wisest man I ever knew

Sixty years of education
Seven years of school
Farming kept his body strong
At night the only books he owned
Kept his mind sharp as a tack
The family bible and the farmer's almanac

When to plant
When to harvest
How you reap just what you sow
When to look for rain and who to turn to when it don't
There was a plan for early frost
Salvation for the lost
Words to live and die by front to back
The family bible and the farmer's almanac

One came from his mother
Handed down the day she died
The co-op sent the other
Every year at Christmas time
He knew the seasons to the day
Knew Paul and Peter by first name
He could answer any question he was asked
With the family bible and the farmer's almanac

When to plant
When to harvest
How you reap just what you sow
When to look for rain and who to turn to when it don't
There was a plan for early frost
Salvation for the lost
Words to live and die by front to back
The family bible and the farmer's almanac

He knew the way to get
From this life to the next
While others spoke of faith
He found the facts
In the family bible and the farmer's almanac
The family bible and the farmer's almanac”

Cuddle up with a few good books (you know my recommendations) and put the last logs of the season on the fire, because The Old Farmer’s Almanac tells us that the last 3 days of March are traditionally expected to be cold and stormy.

“Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.”  Hebrews 13:8 NIV

War of the Roses

"Won't you come into the garden? I would like my roses to see you."  -Richard Brinsley Sheridan

I did battle with my roses today.  They just don’t understand that pruning them is for their own good, so they fought back and I have plenty of battle scars to prove it.  Now that they are all shaped up and have plenty of room to breathe, they should add lots of blooms in the next few weeks to show off their new look.  I think we are friends again, but I will keep my distance none-the-less!

I don’t know what it is about roses, but I just love, love, love them.  I can’t grow my favorites, like the tea and cabbage roses as they just can’t survive the region I live in and die away from disease or pests.  I guess that they are just too delicate.  What I can grow are the old fashioned antiques, like the Knock Out family of roses and one of my favorites, Belinda’s Dream, which is not an antique but beats all the odds!  Belinda’s Dream is a fast growing shrub that has few disease problems, is covered with a bluish-green foliage and simply lovely, double pink blossoms.  All that and a rich, distinctive fragrance too.

After the battle was done I was picking up the waste and I noticed how incredibly abundant and sharp the thorns were.  I could hardly handle them, even with a gloved hand, without being stabbed.  Just yesterday I watched a group of songbirds fussing and flying about in that bush and wondered how in the world they could land on those hazardous branches without being pierced.  They would fly about from branch to branch, so I know they were not ensnared in the bush, they either were not affected for some reason or they were so caught up in the argument that they didn’t feel them.

I then thought of the Easter story and how before Jesus’ crucifixion, the Roman soldiers thrust a “crown of thorns” onto Jesus head.   I can’t even fathom how painful that must have been.  Jesus was mocked  three times by Roman soldiers who placed a crown of thorns upon his head.  To the Roman soldiers the title of King was laughable.

But wait, there’s more.  According to scripture and BibleHistory.com:

“Then the governor's soldiers took Jesus into the Praetorium and gathered the whole company of soldiers around him. They stripped him and put a scarlet robe on him, and then twisted together a crown of thorns and set it on his head. They put a staff in his right hand and knelt in front of him and mocked him. "Hail, king of the Jews!" they said. They spit on him, and took the staff and struck him on the head again and again.  Matt. 27:27-30

Mathew, Mark and John report in their gospels that when Pilate handed Jesus over to the soldiers, they brutally scourged him, probably using the infamous Roman Flagrum, a multi-thonged whip embedded with sharp pieces of lead, metal or bone designed to remove flesh.

After the scourging, the soldiers had a bit of sadistic fun with the bleeding savior, mocking his claims of Kingship by dressing him up with a scarlet robe, placing a staff in his hand, as if it were a king’s scepter, and cruelly creating a crown from a thorn bush and pressing it into his scalp. They kneeled before Him in sarcasm saying, “Hail, King of the Jews!”

His crown of thorns, the crown that fallen humanity placed on his head was an awful symbol showing man’s complete contempt for all that God loves and values. It was also emblematic of our Saviors love for all of us and our minds which are deceived and pained by so much of this world’s lies. Perhaps it is also a vicarious witness that he bore the very thorns created by man’s original sin and rebellion in the garden, so that we might one day wear the crown of life and glory. (James 1:12, Rev. 2:10, 1 Peter 5:4)”

I eagerly await the day to embrace Christ and give him my humble “thank you”.  Thank you for suffering for me, thank you for choosing me, thank you for saving me, and thank you for roses, whose thorns remind me of Your sacrifice and whose beauty remind me of unimaginable, incredible love that is mine because You are.

"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life."  -John 3:16

Heaven On Earth

“Everybody needs beauty as well as bread, places to play in and pray in, where nature may heal and give strength to body and soul.  ~John Muir”

In February my husband and I celebrated our 25^th wedding anniversary with a cruise to the Bahamas.  What a beautiful way to celebrate that many years of life and love together.  It was our first cruise and proved to be pretty much all that I expected.  We soaked up the sun, ate too much, parasailed and spent time at a private island, and toured the city of Nassau.  In Nassau we had the opportunity to visit the Ardastra Gardens, Zoo, and Conservation Centre.  I am sure you can anticipate what the highlight of my trip was!

The moment I stepped into the gardens, I felt as if I had just come home.  My soul felt at rest as I took in the beauty of the tropical foliage and I found myself delighting in the details of every single plant and flower that I laid eyes on.  It seemed as if those gardens had been there forever, the stones that held the water features were well-aged with moss abounding, exotic full trees and coconut palms towered over bromeliads, orchids, brilliantly colored bougainvillea, and hibiscus of every hue.  Walking on the winding pathways, the gardens had an intimate and informal nature to them, which I liked very much, and held constant surprises, such as a footbridge over a pond where I got splendid pictures of Bahamian ducks sleeping after a hard morning of swimming and eating, a fresh water turtle on a fallen log, and archways of shrubs and exotic plant life.

I did some research on the gardens and mapsoftheworld.com gave a nice history of the park indicating that The Nassau Ardastra Gardens were opened in 1937 and that it was the idea of a Jamaican horticulturalist, Hedley Vivian Edwards.  He wanted to create a luscious garden in the heart of Nassau. This garden was named after the Jamaican defense force motto, Ardastra. The name comes from Latin 'Ardua astrum' which literally means 'Striving for the stars'.

The park is home to hundreds of beautiful mammals, birds, and reptiles from around the world, including many endangered species from the Bahamas and the Greater Caribbean and is committed to the preservation and conservation of endangered species.  The flamingos were breathtaking and marched on command in front of an awestruck audience.

I mentioned that I felt as though I had just come home when I entered the gardens.  I know that this is because just a touch of heaven has been planted in my heart, and the beauty we experience here on earth is only a morsel, a grain of sand, microscopic in comparison to what we will experience in heaven.  The splendor of the five acres that make up Ardastra Gardens are only a preview of what my Father has for me when I step into Heaven.  I am so blessed.  I have a Father in Heaven who paid the ultimate price of sacrificing His Son so that I can share eternity with Him, I have had 25 years on earth with a godly man who loves me more than I deserve, and I have a little bit of heaven right here on earth to remind that the best is yet to come.

 “Jesus answered him, “Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise.” Luke 23:43