A few days ago, I hurriedly jumped into my car, running late for an important doctor’s appointment. I put the address in my GPS and sped off, glancing every once in a while at the map so I’d know where to turn next. As I drove, I thought to myself how disappointed I was with the way I was feeling. I felt very down - sad, discouraged. I’d battled these feelings much of my life, even after becoming a Christian, and it bothered me that I still felt so low at times. My thoughts bombarded me, one after another with no break.
Read MoreA 7-year-old boy who has been experiencing nightmares is invited to color a picture that describes what the nightmares are like. He reaches for the crayons and picks out blacks and browns and reds, scribbling dark, jagged-looking shapes surrounding a small stick figure in a square, which he explains is him in his bed. A prayer minister gently asks him what kind of feelings go with the picture and he replies “scared” and “bad”. The prayer minister asks if he’d like to let Jesus help him draw a new picture and he nods.
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I was in a meditative prayer session recently and asked God what he wanted me to know and the word “garden” came to me quietly, like a whisper. I jotted it down and have been mulling it over ever since.
The longer I sit with it the more it feels like an invitation.
Naturally, I headed to Genesis 2 and 3, but with a few new questions in mind prompted from my spirit: what does it mean to live IN the garden? What does it mean to live FROM the garden? What does it mean to BE the garden?
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Some years ago, I was diagnosed with cancer and one night as I was driving, I called on God to honor the promises of scripture. In true Word-of-Faith fashion I said out loud (and quite loudly because I was certain volume made my prayers work better), “You will heal me because Isaiah 53:5 says we are healed by his stripes. You will heal me because James 5:15 says the prayer of faith will restore whoever is sick.” I continued down the list. “You will heal me because Psalm 91 says no plague will come near me and you will heal me because Matthew 12:15 says Jesus healed all who were sick. You will heal me because…” And right at that moment something caught in my heart and my throat, a hiccup or a hitch that interrupted my rant, and the bravado evaporated and tears spilled down my cheeks and I whispered shakily, “Would you heal me just because you love me?”
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