I inhale the lovely morning coolness of the back yard, grateful for the orange blossoms and birdsong.  This is where I love to start the day, in the morning twilight, with my Bible and my journal, where I lay my burdens down and find my spirit filled.  Though I sometimes come in hurry, prepared to rush through prayer and get to my tasks, God gently pulls me back so that I rest in His presence.  I praise Him, realizing that it is not the act of prayer that is important, it is the meeting with Him. 

My husband has a long and growing prayer list; people and concerns he faithfully prays for daily until he hears the prayer has been answered.  The other day, I admitted to him that often I don’t pray in great detail; though I sometimes wish I prayed more faithfully for people, I more just “converse” with God.  His response was unexpected, profound, and affirming, “No, you ‘walk in the garden’ with God, and I’m sure he much prefers that!”

That meant so much to me on multiple levels:  it encouraged me in my own walk, it blessed me that his heart values and yearns for that kind of relationship with God, and it was such a beautiful picture of life with God, “walking in the garden,” a reminder of the original garden relationship restored, that what is broken is and will be made whole in and through Christ.