Inclosed part 4
The garden was inclosed until the wind started to blow. Jesus is the sower, right? He sows the seed, which is the Word (which is love) of God. We are the ground that the seed grows in. And here's the cool part--when a seed won't grow you don't throw the seed away, you fix its environment. The Gardener makes sure the ground is good for growing. Never forget that it is the GOODNESS of God that leads man to repentance. And never forget that repentance is simply reconsidering something in the light of something else. Seeing ourselves as we truly are--instead of the way the world has taught us to see ourselves--in the light of God's mercy, and grace, and love. What I'm trying to say is--if there are some stony places in us... the Gardener can soften those place by watering us. The healing rain. The living water that flows from our innermost being. Or if there are some shallow places in us where it is hard to put down roots... the Gardener can dig in deeper. The deep calls out to the deep. There is something in everybody that cries out for love. Love is what we need. Love is ALL we need. And, yes, love comes in many shapes and sizes. Love is the solution, the answer, to the problem. But that doesn't always look the same from person to person, garden to garden, situation to situation. Remember when we briefly touched on some of those good things that were already inside the garden? The things that the Gardener Himself wanted to partake of? Revelation 22:2 tells us that, "In the midst of the street of it, and on either side of the river, was there the tree of life, which bare twelve manner of fruits, and yielded her fruit every month: and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations." A fruit for each month of the year. For every season and every occasion. And the leaves--that fall to the ground, and blow wherever the wind will take them--for the healing of the nations. This is such a powerful picture. What I'm trying to say today, in my roundabout wander around and hope I make my point kind of way, is that it is the Gardener's responsibilty. Making sure the ground is good. Planting the seed. Caring for it. Helping it grow. Reaping the harvest. And all we have to do... is let God do what He's of a mind to do. Be still and know that HE is God. Rest in His loving arms and let His love flow into you, and out of you. Freely you have received... freely can you give. Breathe it in and breathe it out. Fill yourself to overflowing with what you've already been filled with. Let God love you and love Him back by loving the people that come into your path. Be that good ground... by letting Jesus MAKE you that good ground. Or rather, by letting Jesus show you that you already are. He did the work. It is finished. He cleaned us up so that He could present us to Himself as a bride without spot, wrinkle, or any such thing. We are who we need to be. What we need is to know who we are. What we need to know is that the garden--with everything inside that it would ever need--is no longer inclosed. We can share what we've got. We can give it away. And we don't have to be afraid of losing what we've got, because we are connected to the unlimited supply!