“The Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden, and there He put the man whom He had formed… And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day…” Genesis 2:8, 3:8
God’s Garden
Walk His Way Revisited
First Posted in February, 2014
Just for a moment, try to imagine a garden that God would plant. The Word tells us that the original garden had herbs, seeds, trees, fruit, and animals. It mentions four rivers, birds, fields, and mist. There was gold and onyx.
It was a dwelling place for man and woman. It was specially created to sustain and provide, nourish and bless. Nothing was lacking. Nothing more was needed. God didnʼt forget a thing.
He gives us places of refreshing today, too, doesn’t He? Places to retreat, like green gardens in the wilderness. Waterfalls, gentle streams, bubbling brooks, lakes, ponds, and fountains. (Have you noticed that “water” is always associated with “refreshing”?) Cooling shade trees, quietly swimming ducks or geese, fish rippling the waters just below the surface.
Perhaps a mountain retreat with tall, sighing pines is more to your liking. Or country meadows with cows quietly munching the grasses. Or snow-covered peaks that speak of grandeur and majesty. Or the oceanʼs unceasing waves, and skies with orange and purple sunsets on the horizon.
Our good God has given us so many places of refreshing. This is His gift, an oasis of calm and cool when our lives are busy, or complicated, or painful, or scary.
Have you found that His Presence is just such an oasis in the desert? To know Godʼs Presence is to be refreshed. We are invited to a time of quiet and solitude, contemplation and meditation, with Him alone. To “hide in Him” is to find a place to think and pray, to be renewed.
Do you have a place of retreat? Maybe it is a physical place you go to that you can call your own. I know a lady whose husband built her a little gazebo with a bench way out in the back corner of the yard. Or perhaps the shower is the only place you can get away from everything else. Or maybe it is not a place, but a time: “When I am… raking leaves; just waking up in the morning; driving to work.”
I urge you to find a place or a time where you and the Lord can be alone. He has surely provided it, for He longs to be with you.
Iʼd love to hear your place of refreshing. What or where is “Godʼs garden” in your life? Leave a comment!
Lord, may I long more and more for Your Presence, that quiet place or time where I am alone with You. Show me those times of refreshing that You have prepared for me, and may I enter in fully expecting to meet You there. In Jesusʼ Name, Amen.
My ‘quiet place’ is waking up long before the crack of dawn.. To have the peace and no disturbances for a couple hours with my coffee and devotionals and to pray.
I was a ‘late night person’ for the first part of my life and then in Dec 84 there was an abrupt change and I discovered the wee hours of the morning were my ‘escape’ and my body/mind has never gone back. I relish those hours of peace and quiet!
My quiet place is the early morning before the day starts.I have learned the Lord is always there waiting for me.
Although I enjoy a daily quiet time in the early morning, I find the most amazing time to know His presence is when I sense Him “calling me away” from TV or reading or something else. That is when I know that He has something to say in particular. It takes some effort to get up and move away from what I’m doing, but there is great reward in pursuing Him at these times.