The number one reason to start a flower garden is the joy it can bring. Not many gardeners bring many flowers inside as cut flowers in vases, myself included; although that is certainly a joyful activity. During the blazing heat of summer, the daylilies, gladiolus, and crinums seem to make the flowerbeds sing!
Day by day new blooms — even the ones we forgot we planted — unfold and make the heart skip a beat. It is so reminiscent of God’s daily blessings of both physical and spiritual nature that we are naturally prompted to whisper a prayer of thanks to our Father.
But these are not the only beds where there is singing!
“Let the godly ones exult in glory; Let them sing for joy upon their beds. Let the high praises of God be in their mouth” (Psalm 149:5-6a, NASB).
When was the last time you went to bed really filled with joy? We can take a lesson from those daylilies! We have much to be joyful about. God has “blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ” (Ephesians 1:3).
Why concentrate on the brambles and weeds while the garden is bursting with color, and seemingly with song? Why allow our thoughts as we lie down at night to go to our failures and sorrows instead of all the gloriously beautiful moments of the day?
You say your life or your visage is not as beautiful as your flowerbeds? Think again. The previous verse gives you reason to see beauty in yourself as God sees it.
“For the Lord takes pleasure in His people; He will beautify the afflicted ones with salvation” (Psalm 149:4).
Oh, but salvation really does beautify a life! Not just salvation from our mundane physical woes, but salvation from the weight and the consequences of constantly “missing the mark.” Winning the lottery might save us from the first (theoretically) but only Christ Jesus can do the latter.
And he does not leave us in the weeds on how to access this salvation, either.
Unless you’ve done worse things than what Peter accused this crowd of doing (crucifying the son of God), we have a prescription here:
“Peter said to them, ‘Repent, and let each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit’” (Acts 2:38).
As you beautify your garden with perennial plants that will sing in their beds every year, beautify your life with the free gift of salvation, and do some of your own joyful singing in your bed!