In the Garden

Sitting alone in a simple, humble garden, these words gently wafted into my mind . . . my heart.

His whisper came.  I was in a garden I had never visited before.  It was on the Mount of Olives, but hidden from the public eyes of the thousands of visitors who came to see and experience the area where Jesus would have spent time talking to His Father.  Behind an old wooden door and ancient rock wall, hidden from the eyes of the regular crowds, the humble gatekeeper had invited me in for a moment in time to simply take it in . . . and listen.  I perched on a large rock, taking note of the hard, broken, dry ground on which it sat . . . perhaps for a thousand years. Perhaps one He had touched.

My eye came to rest on some tiny little plants that had found spots of dirt in which to sink their tiny roots.  A fragile little white flower, some tiny yellow blossoms, and another small purple flower had bloomed amidst the rocky path along which I had found my momentary perch.  If I hadn’t been looking down, I would have never seen them.  So tiny, so intricate, so lovely and unexpected.

My downcast eyes focused on the fragile beauties, doing what they were created to do.

I knew that God was there, and that He had something to speak to my sad heart in this ancient, peaceful little garden.  I was listening . . .

“I know what it’s like to not want to go through something horrible . . . to be hit by it . . . rocked by it . . .  to have to feel, to have to hurt,  to have to know mental anguish, physical torment, emotional devastation…. To experience a sense of hopelessness. 

“But all of that was a temporary experience.   I carry the scars, and so will you.  But I had togo through it in order that what was to come could be accomplished.  “. . . For the Joy set before Me, I endured the cross . . .”

Joy was waiting.

What was it for Him?

~  Making forgiveness possible

~  Making Heaven accessible

~  Making Eternity in Heaven actual

~  Breaking the Power of the Evil One

~  Breaking the Power of Death

~  Making Satan powerless

~  Giving Hope to this hopeless world

What is the “Joy set before me?”

Where are my eyes?

As a child whose attention is so easily distracted, I hear His Voice,

“Look in My Eyes.”   

“Focus on Me.”

“Do what I’m telling you to do.”

“I Am with you….always!”

“Look in My Eyes.”