Close to God in a garden

The garden centres have reopened. I know for many folks this news will have been greeted with a great sigh of relief. I went along to my local garden centre and noticed people happily browsing along the rows of bedding plants, perennials, and annuals. 

Others were examining the fruit trees, ferns and shrubs. A number were piling their trolleys with large bags of compost and tomato plants. All were following the one-way system in our new mode of shopping.

The delight was palpable on their faces as they chose the items that were to be taken home to enhance their gardens. I modestly purchased a new fork, trowel and gloves with the aim to take up gardening as a new hobby. I do have a lone Hosta waiting to be planted but the ground will need some severe weeding first!

Of course, in among the plants were pots, water features, gnomes, and the like, I spotted a sign that you could purchase for your garden. It read:-

The kiss of the sun for pardon,
The song of the birds for mirth,–
One is nearer God’s heart in a garden
Than anywhere else on earth.

When I got home I looked it up and found it was part of a poem by poet and hymn-writer Dorothy Frances Gurney.

The Lord God planted a garden
In the first white days of the world,
And He set there an angel warden
In a garment of light enfurled.

So near to the peace of Heaven,
That the hawk might nest with the wren,
For there in the cool of the even
God walked with the first of men.

And I dream that these garden-closes

With their shade and their sun-flecked sod
And their lilies and bowers of roses,
Were laid by the hand of God.

The kiss of the sun for pardon,
The song of the birds for mirth,–
One is nearer God’s heart in a garden
Than anywhere else on earth.

For He broke it for us in a garden
Under the olive-trees
Where the angel of strength was the warden
And the soul of the world found ease.

During the lockdown people’s gardens have literally been a Godsend to them. A place to spend time, to create and to be close to God. Amen

  

Peace Prayer

The Peace Prayer of Saint Francis

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace.

Where there is hatred, let me sow love;

Where there is error, truth;

Where there is injury, pardon;

Where there is doubt, faith;

Where there is despair, hope;

Where there is darkness, light;

And where there is sadness, joy.

O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek

To be consoled as to console;

To be understood as to understand;

To be loved as to love. 

For it is in giving that we receive;

It is in pardoning that we are pardoned;

It is in self-forgetting that we find;

And it is in dying to ourselves that we are born to eternal life.

Amen.