In The Garden

Ever have one of those mornings in which nothing goes right?
Today was one of those mornings.

While brushing my teeth, I tripped - on what  I have no idea - and my knee smacked the open vanity door causing it to hit the bathroom door jamb.  The glass nob of the vanity door broke.  

I sigh.  I pick it up.
I slice my finger open.

It's been 2 minutes.  I've been up for 2 minutes.
The rest of the morning wasn't too much better.

By the time I sat down to have my breakfast I felt the day already won and I hadn't even left the house yet.  I open my Bible; John 17 is the passage I'm to read today.

Jesus is praying.  He prays for Himself as He knows the crucifixion is coming, He prays for the disciples in front of Him, and He prays for all believers.

As He faced His imminent death, Jesus prayed for us...He prayed for me. 

After praying this prayer in John 17, Jesus leaves for the Garden of Gethsemane where He would begin to make right what happened in the Garden of Eden.

Contemplating this wonder, I look up and see the gardens outside my window.

Jesus and the story of 2 gardens.  One perfect in beauty marred now by sin and death; the other watered by the dusty tears of the One who's death would soon bring beauty.

I begin to think of my own garden.  The one no one can see except Jesus.  When was the last time I even weeded?  I sure felt the pruning.

Friends, maybe right now your garden is lush with the life of summer.
He prayed for you.

Maybe your garden is nothing more than the leafless, barren sticks protruding from the frozen soil of winter.
He prayed for you.

He prayed knowing the winter garden becomes spring's hope and knowing the lush garden of summer would soon give to the harshness of winter.

No matter what your garden looks like, He knows the season you're in.

And He prayed for you.

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John 17: 13 - 16 But now I am coming to You; and these things I speak in the world so that they may have My joy made full in themselves.  I have given them Your word; and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. I am not asking You to take them out of the world, but to keep them away from  the evil one. They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.