The Dark Garden 2.0
My mother used to love to garden. If it sprouted a root, necessitated dirt, water, sunshine and love, she was all in. Anything from houseplants, rose bushes, azaleas and hydrangeas, she was all about that life. She even had a small vegetable and herb garden in her back yard, which I referred to as the collard patch. But you know, gardening is hard work. It’s dirty work too. However, if you’re into it, it can be very therapeutic and relaxing.
Yesterday I blogged about sitting in the dark garden. I think I’ll dig a little deeper today. See what I just did? Dang! You missed it. “Dig a little deeper.” I referenced the dark garden as a place of struggle and gave the examples of how Jacob and Jesus struggled and dealt with life’s blows in the darkness. In the dark garden, we are called to rescue ourselves from ourselves. To sit in the darkness and reconcile ourselves to the truth of who we are divinely created to be.
Sometimes these interwebs be preaching. Yesterday I saw the following quote on Instagram. “Those people who tried to bury you did not know that you were a seed.” Go back and read that again. When you plant a seed, you drop it in obscurity and darkness, hoping that something will take root and spring forth, under the right conditions. I am reading TD Jakes devotional “Crushing” which is based off his book of the same title. Of being planted, he writes: “Where you suffer, crushed by burdens or circumstances, can often be the very place you can grow….perhaps then you will realize that the dirty place became the nurturing soil that enabled you to grow and blossom in ways that you would never have experienced sitting in the safety of a greenhouse.” Whew Lawd! That was your shout right there.
I told you, gardening is dirty work. We get so caught up in the end result, the beauty of the flowers. The fruit, or whatever the final product may be, that we lose sight of the process of having to get dirty, being watered, scorched by the sun and tested in other ways before we blossom into what we are called to be. Don’t be afraid to get dirty in the Dark Garden. As my mama would say “Here Baby, take these gloves and get to work.” Gardening is dirty and meaningful work. As you continue to sit in the garden, don’t be scurred of the dirt, as you ask the questions, deal with you and yourself. After all, the dirt is meant to help you grow.
On Fantasia Barrino’s first CD, she had a song “It’s all good.” Near the song’s ending she simply sang ‘Brush the dirt off, cause it’s all good!” Indeed, it is all good. Just brush the dirt off. The following prayer comes from Jake’s devotional, which I cited earlier.”
“Father God: Help me to hold on to your unchanging hands. Give me guidance and strength to learn the lessons needed in my dirty places. I know you are working and developing me into the person you intend me to be. In Jesus’ name.” Amen.
Let’s get dirty in the dark garden, shall we? Continue to trust yourself and the unfolding.
#Selah
