In the Garden

Last week's post was about the need to quiet the busyness around us, even strip away our support systems, on occasion, to hear God better.

The old hymn In the Garden was in my head and it struck me that it is a beautiful picture of that very concept.

In the Garden
I come to the garden alone
While the dew is still on the roses
And the voice I hear falling on my ear
The Son of God discloses.
Refrain

And He walks with me, and He talks with me,
And He tells me I am His own;
And the joy we share as we tarry there,
None other has ever known.

He speaks, and the sound of His voice,
Is so sweet the birds hush their singing,
And the melody that He gave to me
Within my heart is ringing.

Refrain

I’d stay in the garden with Him
Though the night around me be falling,
But He bids me go; through the voice of woe
His voice to me is calling.

Refrain

Words and Music by C. Austin Miles, 1912

We must come alone, to a place of solitude to walk and talk with our Savior.

🎶 "He walks with me and He talks with me..."

Our first encounter with the Lord is something that has to happen on an individual basis.

Others can show us by example, point us in the direction of the cross....but we walk that initial walk on our own. The one where we walk towards a Savior, understanding our need for salvation and accept what He has done for us.

🎶 "I come to the garden alone"

As with Mary when she encountered the risen Christ.  Which is the inspiration behind the penning of this hymn. (tanbible.com)

📖 Now Mary stood outside the tomb crying. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb and saw two angels in white, seated where Jesus’ body had been, one at the head and the other at the foot. They asked her, “Woman, why are you crying?”  “They have taken my Lord away,” she said, “and I don’t know where they have put him.” At this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not realize that it was Jesus.  He asked her, “Woman, why are you crying? Who is it you are looking for?"  Thinking he was the gardener, she said, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will get him.”  Jesus said to her, “Mary.”  She turned toward him and cried out in Aramaic, “Rabboni!” (which means “Teacher”).  Jesus said, “Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father. Go instead to my brothers and tell them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’” Mary Magdalene went to the disciples with the news: “I have seen the Lord!” And she told them that he had said these things to her. John 20:11-18

Christ even needed solitude in a garden to have one of His most important conversations with His Father and Lord.

📖 The Garden of Gethsemane

Then Jesus *came with them to a place called Gethsemane, and *said to His disciples, “Sit here while I go over there and pray.” And He took with Him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, and began to be grieved and distressed. Then He *said to them, “My soul is deeply grieved, to the point of death; remain here and keep watch with Me.”  And He went a little beyond them, and fell on His face and prayed, saying, “My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; yet not as I will, but as You will.” Matthew 26:36-39 (NASB)

The Hymn tells of a very personal God, not unlike the relationship in the first Garden.

📖 Now the Lord God had planted a garden in the east, in Eden; and there he put the man he had formed. The Lord God made all kinds of trees grow out of the ground—trees that were pleasing to the eye and good for food. In the middle of the garden were the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Genesis 2:8-9

The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. And the Lord God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die.” Genesis 2:15-17

Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden.  But the Lord God called to the man, “Where are you?” He answered, “I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid.” And he said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?” Genesis 3:8-11

To me it sounds like it was a very personal interaction with God. He placed them in the garden, spoke with Adam about his duties. And sought them out when sin entered. 

We can have that personal relationship.  Whether we take an actual walk outside in a garden or some where in this beautiful world He created, or it is just time in His presence....we have to opportunity every day to hear His voice, the voice that is..

🎶 so sweet the birds hush their singing

I also equate it with our quiet time

Early, First thing, first walk of the day...

🎶 While the dew is still on the roses

And He will meet us there.  

In out quiet time with Him, we come on our own to listen, learn, refresh, renew.

🎶 And He walks with me, and He talks with me,
And He tells me I am His own;

He will walk with us through our day, every step of the way if we choose Him,

And we allow Him to place a melody with in our heart...a song ...our song that only He can give.

🎶 And the melody that He gave to me

Within my heart is ringing.

Listen to this version of the old hymn

🎵 In the Garden Alan Jackson