Gardens along the way....10... people...

Gardens along the way....10...people...

 

 

I have two neighbors, in particular, whose flower gardens represent to me a tiny picture of differences in people...

One is perfect all the time...I think if they had more acreage,theirs would be the meticulously groomed hedgerows with a formal design...not a plant out of place...not a weed to be seen...no extra fluff, very staid...but beautiful in its formal, perfectly symmetrical way...

On the other hand, the second garden reminds me of pictures I have seen with flowers scattered along stone paths near English cottages...a vast mixture of brilliant rainbow colors, sizes, types...a few weeds thrown in here and there, no lawn, a little unruly, but a Monet or Renoir appeal...

 

 

Oh there are a multitude of types of people...all kinds of languages, customs, cultures, skin/hair/eye colors, thinking/learning/personality types....and so very much more...no one among the zillions is the same as the other...each a garden to cultivate...a landscape to behold...growing, transforming, living...created by a Master Designer who loves and cares for us beyond my earthly comprehension...

Who gave us a written Word of His love through history, His redemption, His grief, His tears, His compassion through it all, His “cultivating” tips,

His comfort, His encouragement, His judgement, His songs, His promises, His calling, and so much more...

He is the gardener, the Pruner,....we are the gardens...just as He is the potter, we are the clay...

He carefully tends us, encouraging, loving, watering, prunes, plucks out the weeds, adds new growth, trains...oversees...each with infinitely meticulous care...so that we bloom to His Glory...thank YOU...

 

All of the other “gardens along the way” are beautiful, they have their place, but the “gardens” of people have a beauty that surpasses the other...we have choices, a will, a soul, a mind...we were created in His image...the other gardens, gifts...

 

 

So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.

God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it.

Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground. ”

Then God said, “I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it.

They will be yours for food. And to all the beasts of the earth and all the birds in the sky and all the creatures that move along the ground—everything that has the breath of life in it—I give every green plant for food. ”

And it was so. God saw all that he had made, and it was very good. And there was evening, and there was morning —the sixth day.

Genesis 1:27-31

 

...I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received.

Ephesians 4:1b

 

Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is —his good, pleasing and perfect will.

Romans 12:2

 

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

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.

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

John 15:1,4-5,8