When The Cool Evening Breezes Were Blowing

August 21, 2015

When The Cool Evening Breezes Were Blowing

The Lord will guide you continually,

    giving you water when you are dry

    and restoring your strength.

You will be like a well-watered garden,

    like an ever-flowing spring.

Isaiah 58:11

One of my favorite images of God is in Genesis 3: “When the cool evening breezes were blowing, the man and his wife heard the Lord God walking about in the garden” (Genesis 3:8a). I love the idea of God walking through the garden in the cool of the evening to have fellowship with His children. I see this same implication in the words of Isaiah. Our right-standing relationship with God is explained as our being in Christ and Christ being in us. Through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, the very presence of God is within us; and thus we can experience God’s Spirit joining with our spirit to affirm that we are His children. (Romans 8:16)

This image of God walking in the garden of our soul raises the question: “Lord, what do you see – weeds or brambles? Or a well-tended garden? (Teresa of Avila) The property behind our house slopes down into a stand of trees that is common area of our homeowner’s association. For our first couple of years here, I tended to it and kept it clear of weeds and leaves and planted plants and flowers to enhance our view from our sun room. This year I have pretty much neglected it, and it shows!

As much as I love the image of God walking through the garden in the cool of the evening to have fellowship with me, I cringe at the thought of what the garden of my soul must look like when I neglect it. Part of the answer is to proactively seek to nurture Christian virtues. Another part is to make sure I am watering and fertilizing my soul with the things that matter. Again, Paul’s words have what I need:

     

“Summing it all up, friends, I’d say you’ll do best by filling your minds and meditating on things true, noble, reputable, authentic, compelling, gracious—the best, not the worst; the beautiful, not the ugly; things to praise, not things to curse” (Philippians 4:8 MSG).

Sē’lah

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(Selah is a word that appears in the Book of Psalms that I often use as the Complimentary Closing in my correspondence. Its meaning, as I use the word, is to pause and think about these things.)

These meditations are written by Alex M. Knight as he seeks the life in Christ as his way of life.  The meditations are published on the BLOG, http://seekingthelifeinchrist.blogspot.com/ and they are also distributed on the Constant Contact email server. You may subscribe to this email service by sending an email to: amkrom812@gmail.com. The BLOG is also available on Amazon Kindle, by subscription.

Publications by Alex M. Knight:

·        Seeking the Life in Christ, Meditations on the New Testament and Psalms has been published and is now available at Amazon.com in paperback and Kindle.

·        The second edition of  First Think – Then Pray is available on Amazon Kindle.

·        Meditations on The Story of My Life as told by Jesus Christ has been released as an e-book on Amazon Kindle.

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2007. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188.