Gardens along the way...

Gardens along the way....

With weather changing into spring, I have been able to take advantage of the sun and walk again outside, yay! Feel those rays of warmth, breathe that fresh air, enjoy the gardens along the way...

I have several routes, each with it beauty and growth...sometimes with friends or family or just with my dog and myself...

There are yards being cultivated with love and care, others out of duty, some still unkept and unruly, but all growing and changing after the winter’s cold and damp...all reaching for the sun and warmth,  the longer days...

Some gardens have nary a weed, while others a few and still others the weeds are choking out the flowers...

Some gardens are trimmed and cleaned, others in the process and some in desperate need of pruning and care...

Each day it seems brings about a change as the gardeners work when they can to clean, weed, prune, tend the new growth and last year’s 

overgrowth, mow the quickly growing  lawns, spray weeds, begin to water...readying for the new season...

But, the color, oh the glorious colors of blooming trees, tulips, daffodils, yellow forsythia, purple lilacs, flowering plums, candy tuft, even the brilliant yellows of the dandelion add beauty to the gardens along the way...

A year ago I was getting a different view of gardens, Israel...the spring rains had made the country awash with color, a profusion of wild flowers everywhere we went except the Dead Sea and the hills adjacent to it, blue Iris, red poppies blended into the lush greens of the roadsides, the mountain paths we walked...

Five years ago, it was Colombia, South America, the coastline flowers as well as the lush tropical greens of inland roads...

Or the Caribbean with the botanical gardens, orchids in all their beauty..

Of seven years ago, it was Australia’s bounty of gardens I saw as well...or Washington DC, the New England routes, the mountains of Nevada, the California coast or central valley, Oregon bounty, the southwest, the route across America so many years ago, the train ride across Canada, the boat trips to Alaska....or just my own backyard...

Gardens along the way...

God has so blessed me with sights never imagined...paths never known ...people who have flowered and blossomed my life with untold riches...gardens along my life’s path...thank YOU....

God’s word is a cultivating force...seeking truth, pruning when needed, digging out those weeds of self and sin, shining light for warmth, comfort and growth...making us each into a garden of beauty in someone’s path...a place of peace and rest...a place for worship and prayer...He as the Master gardener of our lives...

The Lord God made all kinds of trees grow out of the ground—trees that were pleasing to the eye and good for food. In the middle of the garden were the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. A river watering the garden flowed from Eden; from there it was separated into four headwaters. The name of the first is the Pishon; it winds through the entire land of Havilah, where there is gold. (The gold of that land is good; aromatic resin and onyx are also there.) The name of the second river is the Gihon; it winds through the entire land of Cush. The name of the third river is the Tigris; it runs along the east side of Ashur. And the fourth river is the Euphrates.

Genesis 2:9-14 

They are like a well-watered plant in the sunshine, spreading its shoots over the garden;

Job 8:16

I made gardens and parks and planted all kinds of fruit trees in them. I made reservoirs to water groves of flourishing trees.

Ecclesiastes 2:5-6 

The Lord will guide you always; he will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land and will strengthen your frame. You will be like a well-watered garden, like a spring whose waters never fail.

Isaiah 58:11

For as the soil makes the sprout come up and a garden causes seeds to grow, so the Sovereign Lord will make righteousness and praise spring up before all nations.

Isaiah 61:11

They will come and shout for joy on the heights of Zion; they will rejoice in the bounty of the Lord — the grain, the new wine and the olive oil, the young of the flocks and herds. They will be like a well-watered garden, and they will sorrow no more.

Jeremiah 31:12

“I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. 

2 He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful. 

3 You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. 4 Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me. 

5 “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. 

6 If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. 

7 If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. 

8 This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.

John 15:1-8