"Precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept, line upon line, line upon line, here a little and there a little." Isaiah 28:10
"Precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept, line upon line, line upon line, here a little and there a little." Isaiah 28:10
I have been praying to have a sense of usefulness and worth, and also to have a better concept of beauty. Well the other day out of the blue I got a little winged message that I want to share with you. I was chatting with someone and she told me that there was a time when she was in hospital having just had an operation for what was called a life-threatening condition, and had more or less been written off as ‘on the way out.’ While she was sitting in her hospital bed coping with this gloomy prognosis, she looked out of the window and was the most BEAUTIFUL GARDEN! It completely turned her thought around! She was discharged from hospital within a few days, had no more treatment, and eight years later is still going strong!
This was such a joyous moment for me because it has given me a whole new angle on the work which I do with my husband which is landscaping and garden design. I see it can have a really important purpose - a healing purpose - and this is helping me to grasp the deeper meaning of beauty as a Soul-affirming and Life-affirming quality.
This also helps me with the mundane things. I can see that order expresses Principle, and by linking it to the beauty of Soul it gives a richer dimension to things which can seem a grind (like tidying and housework in my case!). It’s so wonderful to begin to see that one’s presence and activity can be one’s healing practice, even if one is not a Journal-listed practitioner. I’m beginning to take on board what Paul meant when he spoke about the “diversity of gifts but the one Spirit.”
It’s also nice to think that if we do everything to the glory of God it MUST of necessity have a healing effect, even if we don’t see it all.
The person who made that lovely hospital garden wasn’t thinking about my friend in particular, but their thought had a healing effect. It helped me to see that the loving and beautifying things I had done for a relative who seemed not to notice or appreciate anything I did were still for the glory of God, and can bless and help people I don’t even know.