The Garden Gate

Where has your lover gone, most beautiful of women (overcomer)? Which way did you lover turn, that we may look for Him with you (the church asks)? 

My lover has gone down to His garden, to the beds of spices, to browse in the gardens and to gather lilies. I am my lover's and my lover is mine; He browses among the lilies. Song of Solomon 6:1-3

We all have the most awesome of gifts, the gift of free will. As we traverse the landscape of our lives we find places of conflict and places of peace. C.S. Lewis called the earth "the fallen planet". 

The landscape of our walk is much like this, with beautiful vantage points, cement jungles, long dusty roads, treacherous paths along narrow cliffs, dark but beautiful valleys and all the same landscapes we see on the earth. 

Sometimes we are walking out in the sunlit plains, we can see as far as the eye can see and its a lovely walk. We are at rest. We feel at ease and we are carefree.

For myself, I often strive with my maker. Don't we all? Jacob, of bible fame, literally strove with an angelic messenger, sent to him from the Almighty. Now he walks with a limp but he is at peace.

Moses literally threw down the beautiful tablets which Almighty had written upon with His finger of Fire. He also struck the rock when he was instructed to speak to the rock. Where does this strife come from? Well, partly it is from our pride.

There is another source to this strife, it is brokenness and the resulting unforgiveness (offence). One other source of this strife is simply the autonomy of free will. 

We were born with an intuition to exert our free will. We have this knowing that our walk is all about this choosing. When we don't walk in the truth and the light, we can tangle up this gift of free will. This is why I call it The Terrible Gift.

When I get disoriented, lost, or I may realize I have been moving forward on auto pilot.  I stop and look for the garden gate. Now, this can be a mysterious venture because the gate is never obvious. 

Yet I know how to find it,... now. After many dead end trips. I call upon the Messiah for He is the gate. I get quiet and look around, I humble myself and ask for help. 

Be advised that this gate will never look the same on any given day.

It can look like a cave upon the high places where your path is treacherious. It could look like a shaded grotto where still waters flow and lilies grow upon the face of the waters. It could look like a clothes closet or perhaps it looks like your blanket pulled up over your head.

 It can appear dark, lonely, catatonic in shape. It is mysterious like the Secret Garden in the famous book of the same title. 

Sometimes it is overgrown by faded and dusty vines due to misuse. It could look like your shower, where you are free to scream and cry with no one listening.

Other times it may look like a hospital door, you must walk through and hold hands with someone in a sick bed. Other times it may look like an old fashioned church altar of wood where you kneel. 

Sometimes you find the gate through someone's hug or the laying on of hands in prayer. Most often it is a search, by yourself, in the twilight or in the dark before the dawn.

The Gate, this beautiful gate is hidden right within your heart. There is a doorway there. That is why the gate can be hidden right there in your present surroundings. When we enter in through the gate, we find living water to restore our souls.

When I drink from this fountain, my focus is renewed, my stamina is strengthened, my insight comes clear, my balance is regained. 

It is in this place that my free will comes into alignment with my resolve to live in the Light of His countenance.

Proverbs 28:26 He who trusts in his own heart is a fool, but whoever walks wisely will be delivered. 

You have a heart instinct, yet sometimes your own heart, without His living water flowing within, can lead you astray.

 Trust in Messiah's heart flowing within your own heart. This will align you with your best purpose and your best self.