a marvelous treat

Many, many months ago, my sweet husband came up with the most marvelous day for me. On Saturday we got to experience it, and it was breathtaking. Mike has a remarkable ability to set us into extraordinary places where we can reconnect in a perfect way. My marvelous, surprise adventure was to the Japanese Gardens in Rockford. It is like walking through a painting, where every detail - every branch, every fountain, every bridge - is exquisitely crafted and placed perfectly in the context of the whole. We could look at a scene for 10 minutes and then walk 10 yards forward, look back and see an entirely different perspective. My words are woefully inadequate to describe this place, the pictures help, but it is worth a special visit if you have a chance.

My favorite part of the trip was toward the end when we witnessed someone pruning trees. He took time to talk with us about his work and revealed the artistry and detail of the garden in ways we hadn't understood before. Every branch, whether on the largest tree or the most delicate shrub, is pruned with a vision for that specific plant, what it will look like in 5 years, and how it fits into the composition of the surrounding "picture." He talked about the designer's vision of the whole garden and that it would be 15 more years (it was created in '78!) before it would be complete. They prune plants in a specific way, sometimes, so that in 5 years they can remove a branch they've carefully cultivated in order to showcase something else within the composition.

Walking through this garden, observing the many prune marks on all the plants, helped me to understand God's pruning work in me in a more complete and beautiful way. Nothing is left to chance, every single detail of my character, of my sanctification, is touched. Most of the pruning is gradual, barely noticeable sometimes, yet slowly shaping me into His image. But there are times, when a branch must go; while painful, it's absence reveals beauty that had been hidden. When I look at the detail in a 14 acre, man-designed garden, I am astounded by the vision of the creator. To know what to plant and where, what to cut, how it fast or slow or wide it grows, mixing created elements like bridges and fountains with the natural trees, the mingling of the sounds of rustling leaves with birdsongs and tinkling of water, layering textures and colors harmoniously, framing a scene so the observer has to peek through a veil of willow branches - all of this, with the perseverance of working bit by bit for 45 years until it becomes what his mind's eye saw in the beginning. It boggles my small little brain. Yet, our Father is doing that within us! He is lavishing upon us infinitely more care and time with a truly Perfect vision that molds us into His holy image. The work of this garden is breathtaking, one of the most beautiful and glorious creations that can come from man.

His work in our hearts is beyond our wildest and most beautiful dreams.

To be loved by a God like that...