The Princess's Garden

One day the Princess decided to walk in the garden. This particular garden was given to her by the King on the day he brought her into his kingdom, adopted her and made her a princess.

All the Princes and Princesses of the Kingdom had one. These gardens were a very special place. The King went there to meet with his children and spend time with them. This gave them a chance to know Him better. The King knew each of his children very well, much better than they knew themselves. He came to the garden not only for himself but for them also. He enjoyed this special contact with them immensely, for there was no other way for them to get to know Him as intimately and He wanted them to know Him. While true, they could learn about Him through reading the many love letters he had written them and bound into a book for them to keep. Also true these letters revealed many things about Him and how he loved them. However to get to really KNOW Him it took spending time with Him in intimate conversation, one on one. He longed for these times with them.

Unfortunately his children often busied themselves with other things and didn't come to the garden to meet with Him as often as He would have liked them to come. This saddened Him greatly because He provided all they needed including the extra time for these most important meetings, but they just didn't understand that they needed to be close to Him for their well being.

The Princess walked into her garden and found it was an awful mess, she had neglected time with her Father the King so the garden had fallen into disarray. This was because the gardens reflected the hearts of their owners. Weeds had overgrown so that it was difficult to see the blossoms of joy and peace that the King had planted there for them to enjoy together. About that time the King walked in and the Princess cried out, "O, Lord please don't come in here, its an awful mess and I'm ashamed to let you see that I let this once beautiful garden you gave to me get into such chaos. 　

Please let me clean it up first." "My Precious Child", the King replied "don't you know by now that I am fully aware of the condition of all the gardens of my children. You can't clean it up alone. It's impossible to restore it without my help, because you could rip up all the love and joy planted here when you try to pull out the deeply entrenched weeds. Plus the weeds will just grow back if I am not involved in making sure every root is removed. I've been waiting for you to ask me. It is my joy to help you make this a pleasant place for us to meet. Just point out those weeds that are bothering you, I will help you see the weeds that are bothering me and together we restore the beauty and peace of our garden. Always remember that every time you join me here, our love causes the weeds to die and the blossoms of joy and peace to bloom more abundantly. I miss you so much when you don't come. Our times together here are so precious to me. Please come and see me every day, more if you like and when you do I will not only keep this garden of ours blooming. I will give you bouquets of joy and peace to carry around to bless others with."

So the Princess did as the King asked of her and the garden blossomed into such a beautiful place she never wanted to leave, but that's another story!

THE MORAL OF THIS STORY IS THIS: No matter what shape your "garden" is in, the King is waiting to meet you there and make it beautiful again!

Linda Knox Rubenack


© 1990