The Garden Path

Up the garden path….

Come away with me.

Let’s go for a walk.

I don’t want to go, I feel like you have had led me up the garden path.

You are right my son, for this is the garden path!

Why are you surprised?

Have you not seen, have you not heard? I love to go for a walk in the garden.

When I rose, they mistook me for the gardener.

Take my hand, let’s go for a walk.

The sun is shining, the birds are singing, it is a beautiful day for a walk in the garden.

You see the mist sprinkling on the garden, for where there is mist, I am in the midst.

Come, one step after another, cut through and set right your weakened and palsied feet.

As you walk you shall be blessed. Have I not commanded it!

But it hurts so much to walk. Each and every step is painful.

Take my hand my son, I’ve got a firm grip on you. Don’t panic, be strong.

And as they walked they were cured. Walk and be cured.

For the immovable shall move, for this ground shall break, that which holds you, that which restrains you shall break.

For as you walk through, I shall break through.

For this is the garden path.

But I hate the thought of the garden! Seriously Lord! Why the garden, I hate the garden! It bears no fond memory, there is nothing that excites me about the garden. It brings a weight of poverty. The memory still weighs upon me, decades later! Why remind me of this! The picture so vivid even now, I feel it even now! It is too much to bear! The bloodied fingers, the heat of the sun, the day from the pit of hell. Pulling the weeds from the rock hard ground, on what must have been the only gravel drive in town, because we could not afford anything better! Surely I should be over this by now!!! For the garden brings no joy. Even the brought flowers bring no joy, even the presented gift dies in the hand of my beloved! I am over this Lord. Why must you upset me so! I am tired of not being able to keep it together! For you play to my weakness, you direct you attention to my weakness! No-one could hope to understand this!

For you shall be like a well watered garden!

Isaiah 58:10-12 And if you pour out that with which you sustain your own life for the hungry and satisfy the need of the afflicted, then shall your light rise in darkness, and your obscurity and gloom become like the noonday. And the Lord shall guide you continually and satisfy you in drought and in dry places and make strong your bones. And you shall be like a watered garden and like a spring of water whose waters fail not. And your ancient ruins shall be rebuilt; you shall raise up the foundations of buildings that have laid waste for many generations; and you shall be called Repairer of the Breach, Restorer of Streets to Dwell In.

For I restore your soul!

I make you lie down in green pastures.

I have led you beside the still waters!

Psalms 23:1-3 THE LORD is my Shepherd to feed, guide, and shield me, I shall not lack. He makes me lie down in fresh, tender green pastures; He leads me beside the still and restful waters. He refreshes and restores my life (my self); He leads me in the paths of righteousness uprightness and right standing with Him—not for my earning it, but for His name’s sake.

Take a new perspective, here take my perspective.

Take a closer look, take a picture, get right up close.

There, now you see it. It blooms before you, its blooming wonderful.

For you can’t see the flowers for the weeds!

Adjust your focus. That’s it adjust your focus. For the view needs manual adjustment!

Keep it together man!

Make sure you see the intricate detail. Now that’s another memory! For you always like to see things up close. You love to be up close and personal with your beloved, but only your beloved. You keep everyone else at arms length.

Song of Songs 4:15-16 You are a fountain springing up in a garden, a well of living waters, and flowing streams from Lebanon. You have called me a garden, she said Oh, I pray that the coldnorth wind and the soft south wind may blow upon my garden, that its spices may flow out in abundance for you in whom my soul delights. Let my beloved come into his garden and eat its choicest fruits.

Take my hand, just like taking your beloveds hand, is that not the most wonderful thing! Just a natural fit, a wonderful feeling, like two puzzle pieces designed to fit together!

For this is a new dawn, this is a new era, this is a new path, the paved path, the restored path, the path without weeds, the path of peace and prosperity.

Come away my love, let’s go for a walk!

Song of Songs 2:10-15 My beloved speaks and says to me, Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away. For, behold, the winter is past; the rain is over and gone. The flowers appear on the earth; the time of the singing of birds has come, and the voice of the turtledove is heard in our land. The fig tree puts forth and ripens her green figs, and the vines are in blossom and give forth their fragrance.Arise, my love, my fair one, and come away. So I went with him, and when we were climbing the rocky steps up the hillside, my beloved shepherd said to me O my dove, while you are here in the seclusion of the clefts in the solid rock, in the sheltered and secret place of the cliff, let me see your face,let me hear your voice; for your voice is sweet, and your face is lovely. My heart was touched and I fervently sang to him my desire Take for us the foxes, the little foxes that spoil the vineyards of our love, for our vineyards are in blossom.

“For our vineyards are in blossom”