God draws me to the garden day after day! Once I have entered, He speaks to my heart and shares secrets of His kingdom. I have always been drawn to nature and the beauty that is found there, but never have God’s lessons been clearer than when I’m in a garden. For the last two weeks, I have shared God’s lessons from my visit to the Elizabethan Gardens in North Carolina. Click here and here to catch up. Today’s visit is a look at the legacy that God creates in the garden.
Legacy is anything that is handed down from the past. With that said, how has God established legacy in the garden? Our human lives as we know it started in the garden with Adam and Eve. Their story and how their lives unfolded are our legacy. Our humanness and how we live our lives started with the first choice made by Eve thousands of years ago in the garden. Everyday we live as God’s treasured gift or as a product of the world being pulled toward those things that will not sustain our legacy.
The beauty in the word legacy comes when examining the synonyms. Words such as endowment, gift, or heirloom. God gave us His most precious gift when He sent His son Jesus to teach us, love us and establish His kingdom here on earth. The ultimate gift of grace was given in the sacrifice of Jesus dying on the cross for all. This act defined legacy – laying down our lives for others and living our lives for God.
A garden is a treasured gift and everywhere you look you will find legacy – in the flowers that return year after year, in the insects that find a home there and in the creatures that appear when you least expect.
God’s garden can be a metaphor for our lives. The most beautiful gardens are the ones that are life-giving and self-sustaining. The same can be said about our lives. I want my legacy – my gift – to be life-giving and passed on so that my little piece will be a building block for those I call friends and family. I want God’s love to be present in the garden of my life and for this same gift to be known by those I love and those I have yet to meet. I want the legacy of my life to be self-sustaining because God is at the center. God’s gift – His legacy has already been given and our lives support this precious gift by honoring Him.
As God beckons us to the garden and pursues us relentlessly, remember:
Surely your goodness and love will follow me
all the days of my life,
and I will dwell in the house of the Lord
forever. Psalm 23:6
As God sends all we need for our gardens, He reminds us that His Word in us will sustain the garden of our lives.
As the rain and the snow
come down from heaven,
and do not return to it
without watering the earth
and making it bud and flourish,
so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater,
11 so is my word that goes out from my mouth:
It will not return to me empty,
but will accomplish what I desire
and achieve the purpose for which I sent it. Isaiah 55:10-11
May all of our lives become rich in love and grace because we have chosen God to be our focus. May we make life-sustaining choices and water the gardens of our lives with God’s Word and promises.
Blessings,
Mary
Photo credits – Mary Geisen, Passage Through Grace
Dragonfly photo – Mark Gruber – my brother 🙂
Blessed to be linking with:
Your garden series is so inspiring, Mary. That we would remember the legacy He has given us and tend the legacy that we are leaving behind. Great encouragement!!
Thank you, Holly! part of the inspiration for part three was of course the sign titled “Legacy Garden”. It really gave me a chance to reflect on why that part of the garden had that name. Blessed you stopped by. Hugs!
Hi Mary! (Is that really a white squirrel??)
I am attracted to nature too. Somehow, I always sigh and feel peace right away. Thinking of a garden as a legacy is a new idea for me, but I like it. God gives everything, and he gives us flowers to give us beauty, and food to nourish our bodies.
And that’s a good point, we should be blooming gardens in response to his grace. It makes us so much more attractive to others too. I know I don’t like to spend time in a garden that is dried up and dead. So I don’t want to be like that either. I want to be a shining example of his gifts.
Great thoughts here!
Ceil
Yes, it is an albino squirrel and there are two that hang out at a local garden where I take my walks. If we truly want our lives to reflect God we want them to show beauty, love and grace. Thank you for your kind words. Blessings!
Legacy’s always been a meaningful word to me personally, and to the work I’ve done with courageous folk who are terminally ill. So to see it here interlaced with God’s creation is such a lovely gift today.
Thanks, my friend …
Oh, Linda! I was not thinking of the terminally ill but I understand the significance of the word legacy. I love that this word can have a very positive meaning when we look at it through God’s eyes. Blessed you stopped by! Hugs, my friend!
You should figure out how to add music, and put the hymn “In the Garden” on these. “He walks with me, and He talks with me, and He tells me I am His own.”
This song sounds beautiful and perfect. I do know how to add music-who wrote this song?
Thanks for the beautiful word pictures. Praise God for His love and care.
You’re welcome! Hope your lovely trip is going well.