If not ignored,
nature will cultivate in the gardener
a sense of well-being and peace.
The gardener may find
deeper meaning in life by paying attention
to the parablesof the garden.
~Norman H. Hansen

The “little plant of reverence in my soul’s garden” grows better and stronger when it is not just “watered” in a formal sanctuary on the Sabbath.  Moments that evoke reverence are something I seek on a daily basis, and I find the “moisture” I need right outside my door.  There is never a shortage of that kind of “water” in my yard especially when it comes, as Proust said, “saturated with a bouquet of silence” that falls like rain from the earth’s shy and quiet presences.

Long before man built temples with sanctuaries and altars, the natural world was his place of praise and worship.  Jesus even frequently went into a garden to be in intimate, prayerful communion with the Father.  Nature teaches quiet lessons to the gardener who chooses to live within the paradigm of the garden, writes on Hansen, and we see in Scripture that the Lord too often employed elements of the natural world in His parables/teachings.  I may have initially begun my garden simply because of a love for flowers and their paramours, but once I began feeling God’s presence in its midst, I deemed it a sanctuary in which I would seek to learn the Holy One’s ways and honor His glory.

Then have them make a sanctuary for me, and I will dwell among them.  ~Exodus 25:8   ✝