Sandy Clough - A Garden of Hope: Devotional

Belle City Gifts

Racine, Wisconsin, USA

Belle City Gifts is an imprint of BroadStreet Publishing Group LLC.

Broadstreetpublishing.com

A Garden of Hope

2015 by Sandy Lynam Clough

ISBN 978-1-4245-5001-2 (hard cover)

ISBN 978-1-4245-5043-2 (e-book)

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.

Scripture quotations marked (NLT) are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright 1996, 2004, 2007. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved. Scripture quotations marked (NIV) are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version, NIV. Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com. The NIV and New International Version are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by Biblica, Inc. Scripture quotations marked (AMP) are taken from the Amplified Bible, Copyright 1954, 1958, 1962, 1964, 1965, 1987 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. Scripture quotations marked (NASB) are taken from the New American Standard Bible, Copyright 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. www.Lockman.org. Scripture quotations marked (TLB) are taken from The Living Bible copyright 1971. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved. Scripture quotations marked (NKJV) are taken from the New King James Version. Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Design by Chris Garborg | www.garborgdesign.com

Artwork by Sandy Lynam Clough | www.sandyclough.com

Editorial services by Michelle Winger | www.literallyprecise.com

Printed in China.

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The garden of life is not as perfect as we would like it to be. Yet within it, God has painted pictures of faith, hope, love, and, yes, even correction in the places its needed. The devotions in this book illustrate lessons that cannot be painted with a paintbrush; they are painted instead with words.

Read the words written here and as you reflect on them, realize that God is everything you need. Life that seems so imperfect is full of beauty, for it has been perfectly designed as an invitation for you to grow closer to God.

A beautiful English garden overflowing with cascades of my favorite flowers, alive with the fluttering and floating of birds and butterflies, and awash with fragranceI would have chosen that for a picture of the life I always hoped to have. A garden of perfection with perfect weather, abundance, and season after season filled with only delights. A garden of comfort. A garden of joy. A painting I could have walked into and lived my dreams of a perfect life.

Lord, my life is not my creation. It is yours, and you watch over it carefully. Although there has been much beauty and more joy, there have also been storms and droughts, broken branches and unsprouted seeds, tenacious weeds and even pests in the garden of my life. Yet all of it, sunshine and rain, draws me to know you. Each brand new problem, each new blow in my life seems at first unsolvable, draining all the hope out of the room. But every new storm causes me to run to you because instinctively I know that you are the only one who can helpeven though I cant imagine what the help will look like.

As I read your Word searching, searching for whatever hope you will give me, I see you more of you. The beauty of your character, your constant love for me, your faithfulness, your wisdom. You are hope. You are everything that I need. I can trust you. My wounds will heal. The beauty will come back. Joy will inhabit it.

As I go forward with more confidence in you, my compassion grows for all those around me with both fresh wounds and stiff challenges. I find myself carrying your heart in my ownwanting to share it with those who hurtpouring out hope from a garden hose attached to your endless supply. This is the kind of hope we only find in desperation.

THIS IS THE WAY TO HAVE ETERNAL LIFEBY KNOWING YOU, THE ONLY TRUE GOD, AND JESUS CHRIST, THE ONE YOU SENT TO EARTH! (JOHN 17:3, TLB)

Your life that may seem imperfect is full of beauty.
How do you see your life as an invitation for you to know God more deeply?

I am tempted to plant my hurts in clay pots where they would like to be displayed for all to see. Then, I could have sympathy and my friends would say, Bless her heart. But I dont want my life to be defined by my hurts. I dont want them to be the first thing people see when they look at me. I want to be a voice for your healings and help, Lord. So, instead I will plant those hurts in my hope garden and water them with your Word. In this process, as your Word shows me your heart, the ugly seeds of hurt sprout into flowers of trust in you. As they mature, those flowers bear seeds of hope! You completely transform what was started as hurtful into something good for me.

Now, I can carry my hurts, not as baggage, but as a first aid kit. I can use the stories to connect the wounded people I meet to your tender care and assure them of your faithfulness. Because of you, hurts that could have darkened days of my life are now stored, not in resentfulness, but in a seed bank of hope. In this kind of garden, the same seed can be planted over and over again.

Please make me a careful gardener who has a doctors motto: First, do no damage. Help me to pay close attention to those around me and be very selective of the help I offerrealizing that all my seeds dont fit in their garden. I especially want to be careful not to bruise them with careless chatter. Help me remember that sometimes just an understanding silence is a welcome cushion for a hurting heart. I ask you for opportunities to connect other wounded hearts to my stories of your watchful care and your transforming love.

WHAT A WONDERFUL GOD WE HAVEHE IS THE FATHER OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST, THE SOURCE OF EVERY MERCY, AND THE ONE WHO SO WONDERFULLY COMFORTS AND STRENGTHENS US IN OUR HARDSHIPS AND TRIALS. AND WHY DOES HE DO THIS? SO THAT WHEN OTHERS ARE TROUBLED, NEEDING OUR SYMPATHY AND EN COURAGEMENT, WE CAN PASS ON TO THEM THIS SAME HELP AND COMFORT GOD HAS GIVEN US (2 CORINTHIANS 1:3, TLB).

Are there people in your life who just need you to listen?
How can you best love and care for them?

F eeding the hummingbirds keeps them close to our garden. They are a wonder to watch. They stretch my mind as I try to imagine how you designed them, Lord, and how you conceived of their entertaining ways. As I count out one-two-three-four measures of water to add to the sugar for them, I wonder, Should I be using bottled spring water instead of tap water? After all, these exquisitely beautiful yet incredibly petite birds have tiny metabolisms. Can they tolerate the impurities that might be lurking in tap water?

It was a noble thoughtpure, bottled water for the hummingbirds. But the real question bubbled up in my heart. How careful am I about the purity of things I allow in my mind, my heart, and my spirit? If its garbage in-garbage out for a computer, it must be the same for me. Can I really let entertainment pour immorality and violence into my eyes and ears and not damage my soul? Psalm 101:3 contains a commitment to put no evil thing before my eyes.