The Garden Within

"For me the appropriate metaphor for the inner spiritual centre is a garden, a place of potential peace and tranquility.  This garden is a place where the Spirit of God comes to make self-disclosure, to share wisdom, to give affirmation or rebuke, to provide encouragement, and to give direction and guidance.  When this garden is in proper order, it is a quiet place, and there is an absence of busyness, of defiling noise, of confusion.  The inner garden is a delicate place, and if not properly maintained it will be quickly overrun by intrusive undergrowth.  God does not often walk in disordered gardens.  And that is why inner gardens that are ignored are said to be empty."
—Gordon MacDonald, Cultivating Our Spiritual Garden

image:  Claude Monet,  Monet's garden at Vétheuil, 1880