Growth - The Sanctuary

There is the gurgle of the mountain creek, and the thunder that splits the rock in his silence… and the deep rumble of the G string as the bow moves slowly against it.

I look away from his sadness. I can’t bear it.  For this sadness of his is towards the mutilated frog and towards the blind fool who mowed over it. Towards the innocent victim as well as the ignorant, arrogant perpetrator.

I look at my yard – all primed and propped – and shudder. With chilling clarity, with heart-melting tenderness, I realize it’s not my yard, and not my property, to do whatever I please, in the manner that most efficiently suits my warped sense of mission and accomplishment, my distorted vision of what ‘real’ gardening is. It’s not a wilderness to be thoughtlessly whipped into submission – regardless of the means, irrespective of ways…

For this tiny piece of land we call our own – now I see – is shared with other creatures – some slow and weak - who have sought shelter and protection in its bushes and branches, in the deep shadows of its trees. The creatures that God placed under our wing, to find their sanctuary there.

And I feel like I want to take the shoes off my feet and throw dirt over my head, both at the same time.

Then Jacob awoke from his sleep and said, Surely the Lord is in this place, and I did not know it. He was afraid and said, How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven. Genesis 28:16-17