The Garden of My Heart

“He has made everything beautiful in its time.”
Ecclesiastes 3:11 NIV

I am hopelessly in love with every flower that God ever created. I love the colors, the textures, the intricate design, and the fragrance of each flower. I find warmth in the bold red, purple, orange and hot pink petals. I experience a calm peace when I look at the cool blue, lavender and delicate pink flowers. I feel happy and cheerful when I see the sunny yellow blooms. I savor the purity of the white beauties and I find rest in the lushness and textures of green foliage. Even the gray foliage is soothing and mysteriously beautiful.

My love of flowers often leads me to a florist or a garden center. I also love to visit a beautiful estate or botanical garden. When spring arrives I have to hold my purse strings tight because I want to take every homeless plant home to live with me! That’s why imagining my heart as a garden where I can meet with God is a beautiful picture in my mind. The garden of my heart is the place where I can meet God and we can spend amazing time together.

Today I am deeply moved when I realize that within the garden of my heart God is planting his values. He is working to establish deep roots of godly character within me. He is pruning and pinching back vines so that I might bare his fruit. He is tilling the soil of my heart and supplying the nutrients of love and grace that I will need to overcome difficult days that are sure to be ahead. In addition, he is sending showers of blessings to refresh me on a daily basis. Jesus is teaching me that when I partner with him, the Master Gardner, he will bring into bloom beautiful flowers in my heart’s garden that will be a reflection his character in my life. My prayer is that Jesus will be the very fragrance of grace in my life. That he will use, as he chooses, all of the beautiful flowers that he has planted in my heart’s garden to emit his beauty to all those he places in my life.

There is also a warning to be heeded. This warning is that the responsibilities of life can pull me away from the garden. When this happens my spiritual garden will suffer from neglect. Every day going to the garden and spending time with Jesus, the Master Gardner, is a necessary choice that I must continue to make.

Questions:

What part of nature do you love?

Do you use nature to connect with God? If so how?

Can you imagine your heart being a garden where you can meet with God?

Prayer:

Dear God,

Help me to connect with you this day through something beautiful that you have created. May I feel your presence and be in awe of your amazing love which is displayed in creation. Help me to know that you care for all of the minute details of my life just like you do in all creation. I only have to look at a flower or a beautiful butterfly to know that you are indeed a God of detail. Thank you for caring about every detail of my life. God I pray that you will give me a desire to meet you often in the garden of my heart.

In Your Son’s Name I pray. Amen.