When I was writing my book, Gardens of the Soul: Cultivating a Devotional Life with God, I used the imagery of a tree growing at the center of one's being to represent the inner life. The character in the parable chapters of that book thinks of her tree in capitals--The Tree--and centers all her efforts on protection and nurture of that all-important Tree, which only makes it ever more weak and sickly. When she (nervously) allows the Gardener to move in with her, He starts breaking down walls, tearing up weeds, opening vistas, and doing all kinds of things she thinks are dangerous and destructive. Patiently, He teaches her to look outward instead of inward, and to see her life's goal as cooperating with the Gardener in building a garden which will provide for many around her, not just herself. In the process, she begins to think of The Tree as just a tree, her own inner life and important, but not the all-consuming obsession she has thought it. She also learns that in drought or rainstorm, in famine or plenty, that tree is nourished by God, not by herself, and is ever green, with an ever-flowing spring of the Holy Spirit at its roots.
So, years later when I moved into my present home and found the labyrinth, it was an added and meaningful bonus to me that it had young evergreen at its center. It was about four feet tall at the time, and is now about ten, and I do believe the tree of my life has more than doubled its own height in the same period.
Do you know--really know--that God's love is evergreen at the center of your heart? Have you learned to allow the Holy Spirit to continually nourish that inner life, and make it capable of producing love and compassion for everyone around you, yourself included?
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