Garden Promises

                     Garden Promises
Dear Friends,
     As soon as the winter rains start falling on the dry, rocky hills of Samaria tiny pink flowers spring up in random places giving a precious beauty to a land that has endured a hot, dry summer. They are like little promises of more rain to come that will fill the rivers and creeks with gushing torrents pouring down the hills.
     Hope for the rain is not just wishful thinking, but it's having a trust in our Mighty God for what He has promised to provide.
    Right now my garden is covered with a damp blanket of leaves, and the flowers are  bent with the heavy weight. The burden laden stems break and lay on the ground as if mourning the loss of the beauty of summer. The shepherd hooks are leaning over and the wind chimes seem to have a sorrowful sound as the cold wind brings a song that is more like a clanging in the brown bent garden.
    When I look at my past garden pictures I am promised  hope that this season won't last. The memories of the past years when blooms came back after a long, cold winter are like hopeful gifts. The basket of seeds that I gathered in the fall are full of promises of a brilliant color filled summer. A small piece of yard  becomes a
pretty cottage garden filled with color and texture after it has spent the winter under the cover of brown.  A pile of fabric scraps can be made into a beautiful crazy quilt, with random shaped pieces of fabric that are various colors and textures put together with unique detailing done in handwork.  We are promised that beauty will come from ashes, that we will be given oil of joy for mourning and a garment of praise for a spirit of heaviness. The wind chimes will sing a new song and we will have joy everlasting.    
   In Isaiah 61:3 we read these promises, "To appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting  of the Lord, that He might be glorified."
 In Luke 4:18 Jesus spoke these promises, "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, for he has anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised."