A Place of Rest

My secret garden is the place I go each morning for my quiet time with Yeshua.  The thirst in my soul is quenched here...it is here I am emptied out and filled up ready to poured out. This is my time to be refreshed and renewed so that I might flourish in my day.

Being still before the Lord has never been one of my strengths, even though it is one of my strongest desires.  So it is amazing that this secret garden has provided me with a place that invites me in and beckons me to draw closer.
       
Right now i'm in Ezekiel. It's a harsh book. It feels repetitive. Yet there are new revelations and applications for me each time i'm brought back to its pages.

  

The readings I look forward to the most are a Psalm and a Proverb.  They open my eyes and my heart in worship and teaching.  Today, Proverbs 3 held a treasure chest full of reminders in every single verse...it overflowed with more than my brain could hold.  I could write a separate piece on that chapter!  Psalm 27 was my Psalm for today...I read it over and over and it was my praise for today. 
                                


In return for my praise, God shows me His majesty in my garden.  Mr. GoldFinch appeared up today introducing me to Mrs. GoldFinch, and it looks like Mr. and Mrs. Hummingbird (who showed up late in the season) have 2 new friends with whom they are allowing to share their feeder!  The garden teems with purple martins, chicadees, woodpeckers, mourning doves, sparrows, cardinals, mockingbirds, purple finches, squirrels and rabbits.

Bouquet after bouquet of flowers burst with color, filling the air with its soft scents, and bring vividness to the life that has been nurtured here. 

 

Though the thick moss will soon give way to new grass, I immerse myself in its softness, and the healing that the damp soil brings to my feet causes me to linger with each new step. 

Trees tower up into the sky with a protecting canopy that ushers in the soft summer breezes along with cooling shade, coloring the sky with differing hues of green.

In these days in which the realization that another season has passed and my parenting days are over, my secret garden offers me solace to focus on the One who gives me hope and assures me of my future and of a new season just as He promised in Isaiah 43:19:

Behold, I will do a new thing,
Now it shall spring forth;
Shall you not know it?
I will even make a road in the wilderness
And rivers in the desert.

All these reasons, and more, are why my cup overflows today.