In My Sisters Garden.....

For many years now, my sister has worked on making wonderful gardens. The hardest part of this is that she has moved 4 times in the past 8 years or so.

For her to put so much effort and time into making a beautiful garden, only to have to leave it, says something about the kind of person my sister is.

I have always wondered at the way that she can meet someone in line at a store and immediately they will tell her their most intimate details. She is probably the best listener I know. I believe it is a gift she has from her Heavenly Father because I am almost always in a hurry and don't take the time to really listen most of the time.

Even when she is in a hurry, she will give you her complete attention until you feel "heard" and that is a true gift. The Gift of Listening.

She nurtures everything and everyone around her. She has been my best friends since we were children.

Her middle name is Eve and I think that she must be good friends with Mother Eve as they both must love gardens. I was looking through my pictures the other day and many of my favorite memories have been made in her yard and garden.

She is like the water that nurtures the vine. She nurtures others when they are dry giving them life with her listening ear and kind words of council. I know that I never would have made it through my divorce and the past ten years had she not been there to give me a drink when I was parched emotionally. In the Bible, John 7:38 says, "He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water." My sister does believe in Christ and lives as such. I wonder at times, "Am I watering anyone or anything with my actions?"

My children look to my sister as a second mother and have always enjoyed visiting her family. I wish I were a better artist as, in my head, I have always had a picture of the Garden of Eden, with my sister and Mother Eve, walking side by side enjoying the fruits and flowers of the garden.

I wish I could share that picture which is only in my head with you. For now, all I can share are the pictures of some of the flowers in her garden that I took the other day and some photos of me and some of my girls and I enjoying ourselves in her yard and garden.

I think at times we are all "living water" to others but for what I am most grateful is the "Living Water" that we get through Christ. I wouldn't have made it through my divorce or life without His living water. Knowing he is there and knowing what he gave up for me on the cross and before. John 7:37 "If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink."

I hope that we each are able to go to Him and drink and that at times, like my sister, we are living water for others. Perhaps some days, I am that for you as I know that other days, you are that for me! I pray that none of us are ever thirsty again!