The new year came in while I was asleep, but not without a tender, spiritual visitation. During my dream, I was singing “In the Garden.” The Lord had asked me to sing it, and so I did. The lyrics flowed and they left deep impressions upon my heart. The dream was so filled with the song that it was if it lasted the entire dream. Though I was instructed to sing the song myself, I felt Him serenading me ~ through me. The lyrics of the song that rang through my soul created the same scene as the songwriter was describing.

As I awakened, the first thought on my mind was “In the Garden.” While I rehearsed the lyrics, they had the same anointing upon them as they did in my dream. Since I am not one to take a dream like this lightly, all day I have been pondering the lyrics while seeking His Spirit to interpret.

It has been said that the songwriter was writing about Mary who walked in the garden on her way to the tomb where Jesus had been placed. Forlorn, she came to mourn, to grieve over His death, and no doubt was feeling very much alone in her early morning approach. She witnessed, however, that He was no longer in the tomb and had risen, just as He had said He would. He was and is alive!

Just hours before my dream, when I had laid my head upon my pillow, my mind was reflecting upon some sorrows, some losses, as well as some griefs that accompanied them. Faintly hearing a firework or two…I drifted off to sleep. Holy Spirit, in His tender purpose, visited me during this time of dreaming: to heal my soul. What had been heavy upon my heart such as things that no longer appeared to have life to them, losses that left tomb-like spaces in my soul, all were swallowed up in this walk in the garden with my Lord ~ who is very much alive. He brought life to where hope had been deferred. Our walk, though captured in a dream, was all my soul needed for rescue.

The voice I heard…the walk we took…the words He spoke…the joy that was shared as we tarried there….none could compare to any other joys in this life. For He IS life!

“I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to Me except through the Father.”  [John 14:6]

[“In the Garden” was published in 1912 by C. Austin Miles]