He leads me into the garden. This garden is my heart. I come carrying seeds. Seeds of dreams, aspirations, cares and all sorts of things that concern me. Each seed carries the potential for growth. Even the challenging seeds and the seeds produced out of places of difficulty, carry within them the potential to grow into something beautiful, if cared for by the right hands.
I have fiercely held unto and protected the seeds. Fearing loss. Fearing disappointment. Fearing the mishandling of things that I’ve held so dear to my heart. I have kept them in their satchel afraid of what might happen if I loosened them from my grip. But until I surrender and learn to let go, seeds they will remain. Seeds only grow when planted.
As I enter the garden of my heart, the garden keeper is there to greet me. He is warm. He is love personified. His gaze penetrates to the core of my being. Nothing is hidden from him. Yet, I don’t find a trace of condemnation or disapproval in his eyes. He is delighted to see me. He looks at me with pride, knowing that these trips to the garden can be difficult for me, especially when it’s time to bury within the soil the seeds I’ve held close for so long.
I open my satchel and with great care I pour the seeds of my heart into the hands of the garden keeper. He promises to look after and care for each one. He knows the unique needs of each individual seed and knows exactly what it takes to help each one reach its maximum potential, as it moves through the different stages of growth. He knows what it takes to yield a great harvest.
He is patient towards me and kind. I have been in a growing process of my own and I am learning the ways of the garden keeper. At times, I have presumed to know so much that I have attempted to care for the seeds in the garden on my own. At times, I have doubted the ways of the garden keeper. There have been seasons of pruning, where I have doubted his intentions towards me and mistakenly believed that only I could show the seeds the care they deserved. During these times, the garden keeper waited within the garden. At the perfect moment, he would take my hand and draw me into his embrace, once again reminding me of his great love for me and his passion to see every seed in my garden grow. He taught me to trust, until once again, I relinquished the control of the garden into his skillful hands.
Although he is capable of tending to the garden, he has delighted in making me his partner. He loves to bask in the sun with me, as we look after the seeds together. He has taught me the importance of bringing the right tools with me to my garden visits. At times, I have come into the garden with a contaminated water supply. With the watering can of my words, I have allowed fear, insecurity or anger to enter the soil of the garden, causing harm to the plants or producing a crop that I never intended. The garden keeper has taught me that as I partner with him in caring for the seeds, the most important tool I have at my disposal is my watering can, my words. I must always choose to enter the garden with a watering can full of hope, expectation, faith, confidence and life. When introduced to the soil, pure water mixed with these elements produces a harvest of peace, love and joy so abundant that it’s fruit blesses not just myself, but also my family and all neighboring gardens as well.
As I learn to care for the garden of my heart, alongside the garden keeper, I have made plenty of mistakes, but just like the seeds, I am constantly growing. And as the garden keeper always reminds me, as we continue gardening together, it is important that I learn to be kind and patient not only towards the seeds in process, but also towards myself.
