IN THE GARDEN

Austin Miles 1868-1946

(Joh 20:14) When she had said this, she turned around and *saw Jesus standing there, and did not know that it was Jesus.

(Joh 20:16) Jesus *said to her, "Mary!" She turned and *said to Him in Hebrew, "Rabboni!" (which means, Teacher).

Just the other day we were riding in the car headed back from Pensacola and I heard a preacher on the radio reverently and beautifully read the lyrics to the hymn, “In the Garden”. No music, just a wonderful presentation that brought a flood of memories to my mind and heart.

This hymn paints for me such a landscape of childhood visions of a homestead, built with blood and sweat out in the middle of the Colorado high desert. Grand parents raising a flock of kids in a three room hand built homestead home. Farmers. Just dirt farmers. Scraping out a meager living resting their complete trust on the Good Lord to bless them with the right amount of rain at the right time and bring a good crop to harvest from the field.

Grandpa Thompson had no indoor plumbing right up to the very day he died in the late 50's. It was out-houses and thunder mugs. Water was carried in buckets from the well to the house; heat was from a tin lined wood burner that we would stretch the wood overnight by adding a chunk or two of coal. Oh the sweet smell of cottonwood, oak or pine mixed with a smidgen of coal smoke on a frosty winter night....

The hymn below was Grampa Thompson and my dad's favorite and I remember fondly hearing them sing it after a huge farmer's Sunday dinner of fried chicken, mashed potatoes, snap beans and home hand-churned and hand formed fresh butter. The harmonies in the refrain brings tears to my eyes all these years later. I love this hymn!

I know that your memories will take a different journey when you read these words. Our mental travels, however different, will bring us all to the very same place. That cool, peaceful, fragrant place that quietly generates an intense love of our Creator.....In the Garden.

I come to the garden alone,
While the dew is still on the roses,
And the voice I hear falling on my ear
The Son of God discloses.
He speaks, and the sound of His voice
Is so sweet the birds hush their singing,
And the melody that He gave to me
Within my heart is ringing.
I’d stay in the garden with Him,
Though the night around me be falling,
But He bids me go; through the voice of woe
His voice to me is calling.

Refrain:
And He walks with me, and He talks with me,
And He tells me I am His own;
And the joy we share as we tarry there,
None other has ever known.

HAVE YOU READ YOUR HYMNAL TODAY?