He was a boy connected to the land. He knew its way, knew how to awaken it from its slumber, or at least she had been told. She brought her friend to her secret garden in hope that he would know if it could ever return as a wellspring of life.
He walked her through the garden describing the virtues of each plant when in the full bloom of spring and as it enters a dormant sleep in fall. As the vision grew more clear though each word a sorrow overwhelmed her. She feared she would never see such a place here. The land she had been gifted was in such a state of desolation that it could never return to life. He noticed the sorrow upon her face as the leaves beneath her feet shattered into an array of darkness amongst the earth beneath. She did not understand the way of the land, and how could she; he would have to teach her.
He walked a few feet ahead as she walked at a solemn pace behind him. Between the fallen limbs of two trees he knelt to the earth and waited for her to kneel beside him. As her knees met the ground he reached for her hands and placed them over a patch of fallen leaves and branches. Gently, he used her hands to separate the fallen stories of many season to reveal the green leaves of a single sapling. A single sapling brought with it well covered irises as the doubts she once had were filled with budding thoughts of a blooming garden. He took her hand and lifted it, bringing her to her feet before a grey and leafless tree. He pulled out a small blade from the back pocket of his corduroys and scraped off a small bit of bark encasing the green flesh of the tree.
Green. Green meant life, just as that from the sapling, green meant hope for the future of this small bit of earth. He returned the knife to his pocket and continued on to explain the dormant state of the garden. Where she had seen only desolation there was life, both new and old, waiting to be nurtured.
Awakening to a state of discipleship and nurturing. This is what I have seen of our short time in Japan. There is a longing for deeply rooted relationships, and deeply rooted faith. We have seen prayers answered within minutes of asking, simply because they were asked. We have seen the church grow after only a few hours of prayer. We have seen relationships built from the beginnings of a simple hello.
There are many seeking to understand this God they have heard of, this faith based on a relationship rather than penances, this creator of the beauty that surrounds them, this God people are so devoted to that they would rather be killed than deny his name. God has provided a key to the door and seeds for the earth. He is waiting for those who seek to plant the seeds and nurture both the new birth and wise in years.
While the collectivistic culture may at first seem to a hindrance to the Gospel in Japan, if nurtured, it is the very wellspring of the single sapling. As a sapling grows it produces fruit, and when in such close proximity as the communities created within the Japanese culture some seeds will certainly take root, and the pattern of growth will continue.
“Much more surprising things can happen to anyone who, when a disagreeable or discouraged thought comes into his mind, just has the sense to remember in time and push it out by putting in an agreeable, determinedly courageous one. Two things cannot be in one place.”
? The Secret Garden
As the children of Frances Burnett’s book “The Secret Garden” sought hope through destruction and relationships built on loving the broken so we have been called to love Japan. Called by the Gardener to take up the shovel and dirty their hands as they open their heart to God’s voice of renewal within this nation.
“At first people refuse to believe that a strange new thing can be done, then they begin to hope it can be done, then they see it can be done–then it is done and all the world wonders why it was not done centuries ago.”
? The Secret Garden
Japan: not a graveyard, but a wondrous garden awakening to the sovereignty of their gardener.
“When you sow, you do not plant the body that will be, but just a seed, perhaps of wheat or of something else. But God gives it a body as he has determined, and to each kind of seed he gives its own body… So will it be with the resurrection of the dead. The body that is sown is perishable, it is raised imperishable; it is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power; it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body,“ (1 Corinthians 15: 37-38, 42-44).
Reflection:
Is there a place God has called you to nurture, but you have long sense forgotten. A relationship with a friend, a family member or even with God? What thoughts did you speak over this place or relationship that are not from God? Is God calling you to make room for his plans, for his time and for a relationship built through passionate nurturing?
Prayer:
Pray for those in Japan already nurturing seeds. Pray that they would be continuously surrounded by the joy of the spirit and the encouragement of the Christ.
