The Garden
One of my favorite books as a child was the classic The Secret Garden by Francis Hodgson Burnett. Recently, I was able to share it with my daughter. Once she finished it, I told her it was time now to see the movie and compare it to the book. It is something that I am looking forward to sharing with her this summer. A few years ago, I came across the interesting story behind the book.
A few years before the writing of The Secret Garden, Francis had been extremely busy with speaking engagements and much traveling for them. She was not often home. Her sons were in their teens, and often it was their father who took care of them. On one of her trips, she received word that her oldest was quite sick with tuberculosis.
She rushed home to help nurse him back to health, only to find that he had passed away. Understandably, she fell into depression. And much like her character Mary in the book, she asked and pondered many questions. Like her character, she too found solace in a garden. It was during the time that she spent in the garden that her heart began to heal. A few years later, she would publish her book, and it has since become a classic. But her love of gardens stayed with her for the rest of her days.
Often when I am in my garden, I think of this book, and since I have read the story behind the book, I too can see how a heart can heal and how relaxing a garden is. I have a small garden that I take care of. Some vegetables, and also a few flowers. My cut flower garden have struggled this year, but thankfully my vegetable garden is doing great! I am looking forward to harvesting some tomatoes and cucumbers soon! However, there is one thing that I have to do on a regular basis to keep my garden thriving. and that is weeding.
In recent years, I have come to love weeding when I do it in the morning. I have found that in the early morning it is still cool, the birds are singing, and it is amazingly still and quiet. It is a very calming way to start the day. There is nothing quite as satisfying as looking back on my row to see all the weeds taken care of and only green plants and softened soil. Also, it is often in that quiet and stillness that I talk to God or do some of my best thinking.
I have concluded that we all need a place of rest and stillness in our day. It is good for the soul. Perhaps that is why we are told to meditate on his Word… so that we might find rest for our souls.
Again and again in the garden, I see the wonder of God's creation: the budding seed springing to life and then watching it prosper and grow. Frequently, I am reminded of the verse in the Psalms that says, Be still and know that I am God.
Mary in The Secret Garden calls it the magic of the garden: to see new life and, in it, to find hope for ours as well. But as a Christian and an adult, I know that the true “magic” in this world is finding God in his handiwork, enjoying it, giving him thanks for it, and from it, finding hope for tomorrow. I think it is in stillness that we will begin to see God in everything, and it will change our world.
Sometimes since I've been in the garden I've looked up through the trees at the sky and I have had a strange feeling of being happy as if something was pushing and drawing in my chest and making me breathe fast. Magic is always pushing and drawing and making things out of nothing. Everything is made out of magic, leaves and trees, flowers and birds, badgers and foxes and squirrels and people. So it must be all around us. In this garden - in all the places. - Francis Hodgson Burnett
Oh who can make a flower? I’m sure I can’t can you?
Oh who can make a flower? No one but God, tis true
- Grace W. Owens.