Secret Garden

When I was in High School, I read a book called "The Truth About Forever" and ever since then I've wanted a garden. I loved how beautifully Sarah Dessen pictured it for me. I basked in the wildness of it; exploring the world of colors and flowers growing in tangles. I dreamed of loosing myself for hours amongst the soft petals, the flowery scents, and the rainbow of hues. I wanted to be able to create something beautiful; to dig my fingers in the dirt and watch something grow from it, something that was alive. 

I believe that God adores gardens. He began the world with the Garden on Eden, and I can imagine him spending years perfectly molding each of his tiny creations with his nimble fingers. When I was younger, I imagined that one day I would stumble upon the Garden of Eden, like Mary Lennox in 'The Secret Garden'. I would promise God that if he let me in, I wouldn't tell a soul about it. God and I would sit in that garden and he would tell me the kind things the flowers would say about me. 

The Savior spent his last moments in a garden. When I lived in Jerusalem, I would spend my sunday afternoons in that garden sketching the deep waves of bark on a particular tree onto the pages in my journal. I remember studying the branches of that olive tree, imagining them as arms that would bare the savior up in those last moments and hold him as he wept. They would hold him in a way that his friends could not. 

Gardens are not far off from being a Heaven on earth, and one day I hope to create that Heaven of my own. I'd love to have a place where I can create, a place where I can talk with god and listen to the whispers of the flowers, a place where I can bury my burdens and watch them grow into something beautiful. I can only hope that I inherited part of my grandfather's green thumb and the ability he had to make the earth come alive in a way that no one else could. I want to create that world; to bring to life what I pictured in a book that I read years ago and still haven't forgotten.