At what point exactly I became my mother, I’m not sure. But it sure showed this past week.
I took of vacation from work to do nothing. So I got up around 6:30 every morning and by 7 I was out in the backyard looking at the garden.
Isn’t vacation grand?!
Each morning, the words of that familiar old hymn came to mind, “I come to the garden alone while the dew is still on the roses…”
The song is most vivid in my memory from my the funeral of my Grandma Pierpoint, who was a devoted gardener and passed away when I was 7 years old.
As a child, one line always troubled me. “I’d stay in the garden with him, though the night around me be falling. But he bids me go.”
Why would Jesus tell us to leave him?
I’m still figuring that out, but I’m coming to understand that just as God calls us to fellowship with him, he calls us not to let our faith stagnate there. His greatest work is in the redemption of lost sinners. He is active in the world, more than we can imagine, and he’s commanding us to be active there, too.
Much as I enjoyed vacation (and I enjoyed it very much) a part of me is looking forward to going back to work tomorrow and reconnecting with the world.
First, though, I may spend a little time in the garden.
Jesus said to them, “Peace to you. As the Father has sent me, I also send you.” John 20:21
Dew on the roses
July 6, 2008 by Susan Mires
If you want to forever change your interpretation of that great old hymn, here’s a little joke for you.
Forrest Gump went to heaven. St. Peter asked him, “What is God’s last name?” Forrest thought for a while and then said, “It’s Andy.”
“Andy? How did you come up with that?” St. Peter asked.
“Well, you know the song… Andy walks with me, Andy talks with me.”