THE ROYAL GARDEN – Iris O

The Royal Garden

The garden of the Lord rests within your heart. This garden is hidden deeply, yet if one merely turns inward, you may enter its delights. For this is where Christ lives in all His beauty. It then follows, that upon observation of the love of the Lord and ruminating over His goodness in your life, you realize that this garden exudes and spills over into your daily living. The beauty of creation that surrounds you, can be an expression of that same peaceful garden. Observe the tender scented budding florals, the rich petrichor earthy fragrance of woodlands, the ocean filled salty breezes, the astonishing process of emergence of blooms, roses, lilac, lily, flowering shrub, all in His beauty. Take the blossom to your nose and inhale its perfumed freshness. Glance up at the fleeting blue heron in flight, or deer leaping across fields, or rare glimpses of forest creatures, or bright fishes on teeming coral reefs. The skies in this garden vary from bright blue or gray brooding, or majestic displays of lightings and thunder.

This garden also thrives under a sparkling night of stars, barely seen yet moonlit and headily fragrant. This garden is peace, this garden is awe, planted to refresh you, here on earth, and in heaven, which exists within your beating heart. Even the colourless city scapes reflect the garden of your heart, when you lovingly choose a single plant or a small work of art to adorn a room, a balcony, a window sill. The beauty of the Lord exists for you, for your senses, for your heart, for your innermost man. This garden is a place of refuge within, which can be accessed daily and in the atmosphere of heaven on earth which encompasses you. This garden is a place where you and your Beloved meet to encounter love. This garden of love is where He heals you and brings you into wholeness. This garden is a place where you and your Beloved meet to encounter love. This garden of love is where He heals you and brings you into wholeness. Here He assures you of His most tender caring. Retreat to this garden often, to the core of your being, where He awaits communion with you. And remember it when observing the beauty of creation which surrounds you. Be ever mindful of the reality of the living garden within you, and you will chase away all falsity.

All of creation awaits the healing from this garden spilling forth from your being. For you are in Christ and He is in you.

‘For the earnest expectation of the creation eagerly waits for the revealing of the sons of God.’

Romans 8:19 NKJV

I am the rose of Sharon,
And the lily of the valleys.

Like a lily among thorns,
So is my love among the daughters.’

Song of Solomon 2:1-2 NKJV

© Iris O