Good morning…
As communities across our globe are gathering together to pray for healing, I want to tell you a story about a growing prayer garden planted in the heart of our small town community. To do so, I pull out my phone and scroll back on a string of texts that began on Wednesday, January 22, 2020.
“Hi Sue!” she texted. “This is Lisa Rieves. I have an idea to start a prayer garden and I’d love to talk with you about it when you have time.” Lisa is a local small business owner who shepherds two little shops in the quaint heart of our downtown, The Front Porch of Vinings and The Front Porch Market.
In just over an hour I texted back, “Sounds awesome. What times are good for you to talk over the coming days?”
The next day Lisa called me, deeply moved by a prayer tree she had recently seen in downtown Blowing Rock, North Carolina, a prayer tree that lives in the garden of a shop. People come from far and wide to write down and leave behind their heartfelt prayers. She texted me pictures to share the powerful visual, and she asked me to pray with her about starting our own community prayer garden.
“Wow.” I texted back. “So incredibly breathtaking. Can you copy and paste for me your blog post about it? I would love to read your beautiful words. God is up to something very healing, and you my dear are listening well. I am honored to partner with you.” Mind you, this was January 23, 2020 just as the coronavirus was silently spreading out to change everything. Lisa sent me her post.
The Spirit of God took the idea and ran with it quickly. Within a week, the arch was placed at the opening of the prayer garden.
Weatherproofed prayer cards, pens, and twine were placed by the entrance of the garden for visitors to add their prayers any time of day or night.
On Saturday, February 8th, 2020, just two weeks after our text string began and one month before our state was shut down due to COVID, we held our first prayer gathering to turn over the open space to the healing work of our LORD. I felt blessed to be holding hands with this cozy crowd.
Miraculously it snowed that morning, out of the blue, adding a magical quality to the bonding experience.
So if you find your way to the heart of Vinings, Georgia, please stop in and add your deep prayers to the growing number of cards being handwritten and tied on permanently for our LORD to tend to like a gorgeous growing garden.
Since January 22, 2020 so much has happened. COVID-19. Shelter-in-place. Economic upheaval. The loss of vulnerable loved ones to sickness, suicide, or brutal injustice. An abrupt end to last spring’s semester and a strange to start to this school year. A raging political battle which seeks to divide us. In the midst the current chaos, we are invited to join the multicolored hands of our hearts, from far and wide, to pray together in God’s lush growing garden.
Post this at all the intersections, dear friends: Lead with your ears, follow up with your tongue, and let anger straggle along in the rear. God’s righteousness doesn’t grow from human anger. So throw all spoiled virtue and cancerous evil in the garbage. In simple humility, let our gardener, God, landscape you with the Word, making a salvation-garden of your life (James 1:19-21, MSG).
…Sue…
P.S. This weekend marks the five year anniversary for The Front Porch of Vinings. On Friday and Saturday there will be fun giveaways and a 20% discount on all purchases. If you stop in, please tell Lisa, “Sue sent me!”
