Then the angel showed me a river with the water of life, clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb. It flowed down the center of the main street. On each side of the river grew a tree of life, bearing twelve crops of fruit, with a fresh crop each month. The leaves were used for medicine to heal the nations – Revelation 22:1-2

Today I thought it would be fun to offer a brief video tour of the back garden to go with some of the still photographs. The possibilities are beginning to make themselves apparent and I am reminded that – just like the garden – I am a work in progress.

Each spring, about this time, Rebekah and I change our minds from the joking (but not really), “This year we’re giving the garden back to God,” to a more enthusiastic response. We have been seduced by the spectacular dogwood and azalea blooms and we can see the beginnings of color all around the borders.

Rebekah, to be fair, is always enthusiastic about gardening. It’s just that her back tends to make life so difficult at times. Then she will spend a weekend in the dirt and weigh the pain against the joy and she simply can’t help herself.

The dogwood are finished and the azalea just about done, but the back garden is beginning to show off with the iris and the promise of hydrangea magic to come.

Seasons remind me that, like The Teacher’s commentary in Ecclesiastes 3, there is a time for everything. “God has made everything beautiful for its own time. He has planted eternity in the human heart, but even so, people cannot see the whole scope of God’s work from beginning to end.”

Typically, I do not know from day to day what the future holds; but I do know that – as a confessed “work in progress” – God is always working in and through me to cultivate something.

Sometimes what I enjoy is simply to sit on the deck with a cup of coffee and watch the garden grow.

And there is peace – DEREK