Highway Going Up!
The new garden niche was on a steep slope. You started at the bottom and climbed
colorful stepping stones to reach its topmost point. The stepping stones were part of the charm of the tiny area and when you got there, you rested on a seat beside a large urn full of Hyacinths. You looked down over
colored pots growing herbs and Freesias, blue Japonica Irises, white Christmas Lilies and golden Gladioli.
They were overhung by several small trees, red Bottle Brushes and a yellow Grevillea. It became our
favorite hide-away part of the garden, a retreat, a place that put everything else in perspective.
There was only one path to the niche and to get there you had to walk to the far end of the verandah and step out on to an uneven dirt incline. You had to keep your eye on where you walked because the incline was an obstacle course of rocks and unstable, loose dirt. It needed a major make-over.
A string line was put in place and the ground was contoured with pick and shovel. Sand was spread and pavers were bedded into it. Then it was edged with
stabilizers.
It took a lot of hard work and there was a cost to it.
When it was finished, the incline was still there but now it was easy to walk along. You could keep your eye on the garden above without stumbling on stones or twisting your ankle to get there.
It was a life-saving highway going up!
And it reminded me of another pathway: ‘I am the way, the truth and the life; no one comes to the Father except by me.’
(John 14:6).
You can keep your eye on the garden above you because Jesus is our life-saving highway going up.
Elizabeth Price,
team writer with Just a Minute