My Refuge

Garden Maze

Wainwright House

Rye, New York

October 2010

Psalm 62:8 NIV

"Trust in him at all times, O people; pour out your hearts to him, for God is our refuge."

I watched The Secret Garden when I was young.  Mary Lennox was a spoiled girl who grew up in India. When her parents unexpectedly died of cholera, she was shipped back to England to live in her mysterious uncle's gloomy 100-room mansion.

Her aloof uncle didn't want to interact with her, so she was left on her own to roam the mansion's grounds. She discovered a stone wall, covered in ivy, with no door. The brother of the house maid told her about a secret garden on the other side of the wall.

The two of them discovered the key to a door in the wall.  They found the door, opened it, and walked in.  In the meantime, Mary located her crippled cousin, Colin, in one of the rooms of the mansion. He was also a spoiled brat.

She wheeled him into the garden, and they began to restore the garden to its former beauty.

As the children brought new life to the garden, the pain of their bodies and souls began to heal, and they grew as beautiful as the garden.

As I watched the movie, I thought how wonderful it would be to have a secret hide-away, a refuge from the world.

As an adult, I hide, in a sense, from the world when I come home.

Unless I have to go out, I don't. I spend time with my family, or I write or read. I'm so busy at work, I need to refresh myself each day. 

I need time to meditate and be with God. 

I don't have a secret garden like Mary and Colin, but I do everything in my power at home to spend time with God and to ward off the worries of work and the world.

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Lord, thank you for the refuge and peace you bring me each day.