| Garden of the Heart |
Chapter 4 |
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The new name which Jesus gave this fisherman had in it a vision of the man that was to be. The giving of the name, with its prophecy of strength, security, and worthiness was the Master’s call for all that was good in Simon. It would have been a bitter disappointment to Him if the rough fisherman had never become anything but what he was that day. Then what a loss to the world it would have been!
Yet Simon’s character was not changed instantly – it was the work of years, even in the hands of Christ, to make the transformation. Work on lives is always slow. Some people speak as if becoming a Christian were a sudden matter, the work of a moment. The beginning of a Christian life may be sudden, a choice, a decision made in an instant – one minute not a Christian, next minute a Christian. But this is only the beginning, and there is a great deal after that. The beginning is only an unopened bud – it takes time for the bud to open into the full, rich beauty of the rose. It often takes God many days to open a little flower. It takes Him much longer to bring a life to its full bloom and beauty.
A child had been playing in the garden one day, and when she came in her mother said, “What have you been doing, my dear?” “Helping God, mother,” said the little one. “How have you been helping God?” asked the mother. “I saw a flower going to blossom, and I blossomed it,” answered the child. There are some people who think they are helping God when doing just what this child did. God does not want help in opening His buds and blossoming His roses. The buds must be opened and the roses blossomed in nature’s gentle way, in God’s way. To blossom them before their time would be to ruin them. We need to be most careful in our culture of spiritual life in other, especially in children. Violence and forcing may do incalculable harm. Many a child’s life fails of its rarest beauty because its development is hastened. Rosebuds want only air, sunshine, and rain to bring out their beauty. The best thing we can do to develop spiritual life is to give an atmosphere of love and purity to those we seek to bless.
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