~God's Secret Garden~
The rain had just begun as my five year old and I headed off for another day of exploration. Drizzle does not stop a five year old on a mission and who am I to thwart his adventurous little mind, he was determined to go to God's secret place. He had insisted that God told him to meet Him there. Who in their right mind could deny a meeting with God, so off we went with umbrellas in hand. Under a canopy of countless trees that make up the wooded valleys and hillsides near our lakeside cabin, we began an exploration in what had gone from drizzle to pouring down rain. We had walked the creek bed the day before. Today I convinced him we should stick to a path, he agreed.
We were walking at a pretty good pace on what I considered to be a comfortable trail, meaning we were going up hill at an incline that was hardly noticeable. He had a determination about him and walked ahead of me by fifty feet or so. I was relishing every moment taking in God’s art work around us when my son shouted “mommy, this is our exit.” I was tickled by his matter-of-factness as if he knew exactly where he was going. I looked ahead to where he was standing and noted a trail splitting off to the left and heading straight up the hillside, very steep. So much for a comfortable walk I thought as I tried to reason with him from fifty feet back that maybe we should just stick to the trail we’re on. He insisted again with determination that we have to go this way and off he went up, up, up and so I followed.
One third of the way up I began to break out into a sweat as I exerted myself trying desperately to catch up with my little explorer. My comfort level went from bad to worse when I realized my bladder was full, so the trek up the mountain side was no easy task for me. He must of heard my heavy panting from way up ahead, he stopped briefly and looked back at me and said “Mommy, you can do it.” Again I was amused at his determination for us both to make it to the top. I told myself “yes you can and will do it.” It was slippery, muddy, and I reiterate very steep so I made an additional two stops before arriving at the top. On the third stop my little fellow was already standing at the top brimming with joy and coaching with a loud voice through the pouring rain “you are almost here mommy.” I smiled, huffed and puffed then began again.
Finally, I was there and my line of vision caught a picture to behold. My son was standing in a sea of yellow. A beautiful back drop to what some may consider a dreary day. It was glorious, thousands of daffodil blooms just
waiting for someone to see them.
When I think of that moment standing in the pouring down rain starring at my sweet boy standing in those daffodils, Isaiah 55:10-11 comes to mind, “as the rain and snow come down from heaven and do not return to it until watering the earth and making it bud and flourish…. So is my word that goes out from my mouth: it will not return to me empty…”
What came next was truly a moment of beauty in my life. Jon-Michael said, “Mommy, GOD was at our house last night and He told me to meet Him at His secret place, He said He wants to show us what he has done, and mommy look at what He has done, look at all these flowers.”
I said “yes, they are quite beautiful Jon-Micheal, may I take a picture of you in GOD’s secret Garden?”
He agreed to a picture as he announced, “I smell Him, I smell His Shoes”
I was so tickled by this and asked “what do GOD’s shoes smell like, rain?”
He gave me a look that said to me, surely you know what His feet smell like mommy, and as he shot me that look I envisioned Mary pouring the expensive fragrant oils over the Lord’s feet. Jon-Michael smiled and said “They smell good of course!” (We followed the scent of God's shoes the remainder of the day.)
“Jon-Michael, it sounds like you and GOD are quite close and that you know a lot about Him” I said as he nodded in agreement, then I asked “Jon-Michael, what is the best thing GOD has ever told you?”
Without hesitation and accompanied with a grand smile, he answered “He says He is in my heart and He loves my heart”
In that moment it was so easy to understand the words Jesus spoke when He said in Mark 10:15 “assuredly whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will by no means enter it”
And Jesus said to them “yes have you never read
Out of the mouth of babes and nursing infants
You have perfected praise” Mathew 21:16 nkjv
Shelli's Journal entry for March 30, 2008
Questions to Ponder
Do you receive the kingdom of God as a little child?
Do you have the faith as a little child to be obedient and follow the voice of God to a the top of a hill see what he wants you to see?
Do you walk so closely with Him that you can you smell His shoes?
Can you hear Him whisper into your soul that He is in your heart and that He loves your heart?
