Walking barefoot in the garden

Some of you have heard Heather and I mention this focus on gardening in our life. Walking barefoot in the garden, getting our feet dirty, pulling weeds and watering. Purging that which hinders growth. In our house and in our selves. Tending to that which bears fruit. Nurturing and growth. I have been reminded that the garden was also the place where Jesus went to speak with the Father. To be with Him.

I have had this thought that I have needed spiritual practices and routines that guide in this. A deep longing to find our center in Him. To live and breath and move from there.

Brother Lawrence speaks to me at this stage.

In comments, messages, and emails some have referred to our recent years as a desert period. That we are currently finding our way out.

We have had many thoughts on unceasing prayer and 24-7 prayer.

Last night Heather asked me about Kathleen Norris and her book Cloister Walk. I became excited. I pulled both copies off of my shelf and we read the first few pages together.

Shortly after Heather was given the word tabernacle. She was reminded of a conversation with my sister. The emotions she felt in the conversation more so than the ideas discussed. We discussed what that was. Dots began to connect. His voice coming through. More and more clearly. Signposts leading to more signposts.

Over the years Derek and Amy's blog, thebearablelight.com, has been a source of wisdom and guidance. This morning I was thinking of tabernacle as a tent, something used along the way, but then as a circus tent. Something bigger. I thought to search tabernacle on thebearablelight and found a post called The Enormous Room. I want to quote so many points of it but the whole thing just speaks to me. Resonates so deeply. I wanted to share.

Be big people in a small world! Stay in His enormity within, and everywhere you go will become a circus tent for others to meet His Presence beneath! Our personal communion space, begins to be a place of meeting or tabernacle for others, as we press on into this inner communioning! The inner big top is our home, and we give to others from beneath the canopy of this place of sacred exchange with Jesus! That’s our nucleus of spiritual power, firstly for our own transformation and formation; then outwardly for the transformation of others and our world! It always starts at home, then flows outwards. The inner births the outer. 

Jesus often went to His garden with The Father. We are meant often to tend this inner garden or room as well. This place between Jesus and The Father could not be abused–it was and is an eternal bond between them. We have such a bond with Jesus, and only we can neglect it. It’s our vital lifeline. It’s our inner core pulse. It is where Christ and I touch and know one another in holy inner communion. Tend this room, and your outer rooms will shine much brighter, and new colors will suddenly appear on your walls! And doors and windows in unexpected places will form.

Your true identity is born here in this enormous inner room. He whispers to you your “white stone” name. The nuances of your eternal identity begin to be whispered in this inner space of exchange! To know who we are, is to dwell with Him in who He is. Peter could not know himself, until He was shown who Jesus was! It is the part of yourself which is beheld and loved by Him in this communion. We are made real in the presence of Christ! We see Him, and He tells us who we are. And your identity is held safe in Him, and can never be touched, but only formed in Him. He is The Way, which contains all our little ways–those smaller paths which we are. Each of us is a way in The Way. Nothing can violate your true identity with Christ. But we must often get to this room alone with Him, and just dwell there, and resonate with Jesus Your Lover, Friend and Guide into all things.