Marriage and Gardens

August 18, 1967 was my wedding day. I miss my beloved every day.  We celebrated 47 anniversaries and were getting close to 48. I am thankful for every year we had together, even the hard years. We took a while to grow up, but we did, and God held us together.

Wayne and I enjoyed our gardens every summer. He would help with the vegetable garden and I took care of the flowers except for his roses, which he did. I’ve struggled to keep the rose bushes thriving. Some years they do well, other years, not so much. He had ordered them for our new place and they arrived after his death.

These are last summer’s pictures.

It’s interesting that Solomon refers to gardens in his Song of Songs. He and his beloved must have enjoyed God’s creation of flowers.

Here are a couple examples:

“My lover is mine and I am his; he browses among the lilies, until the day breaks and the shadows flee, turn, my lover, and be like a gazelle or like a young stag on the rugged hills” (Song of Songs 2:16-17).

“Awake, north wind, and come, south wind! Blow on my garden, that its fragrance may spread abroad. Let my lover come into his garden and taste its choice fruits” (Song of Songs 4:16).

A few more flowers and creatures.

When worries or loneliness want to take over my days I find comfort in God’s beautiful creation and in the promises of His word.

“And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these” (Matthew 6:28-29).