On Saturday we sent out texts to our local friends and acquaintances- we would meet to walk through an (albeit out of season) orchid garden, would they like to join our group? People here seem to love such group outings (I am not so much a big group person myself, but hey- all things to all men, yeah?) and it is an effective way to pursue further friendship with acquaintances made in passing. We had about twenty friends turn up! So the whole pile of us wandered in little sets and clumps around a traditional styled garden for a couple hours. The weather wasn’t lovely, but it was an easily bearable cool, and we had a good time walking and talking and sharing. There was good connections, good conversations, and the event was a success.
It seems to me that we were in a garden in more ways than one: there was the orchid garden, and there was garden of hearts/lives we were given to tend. We walked in an actual garden, with the garden of people the Father has seen fit to plant around us- and our day consisted of cultivating them. Whether in encouragement, in answering questions, in affirmation, in discussion- we were softening ground, planting seeds and building up growth. We were tending the purposes of The Gardener in those we were given. We are always in a garden. A Saturday among the orchids just reminded me of all that the Lord is causing to bloom in His children here, and all He is cultivating in the hearts of those in whom His life has not yet sprung up. What a joy to be with Him in what He is doing!
