The Girl in the Garden

(written August 14, 1998)

This past summer, while working at Castaway, the Young Life property in Minnesota, I was washing clothes one Sunday afternoon when I looked out of a window and saw a girl cutting flowers in a garden which she had tended throughout the summer. She was preparing vases of flowers for guests of the camp who would be arriving later that day. She worked unnoticed, doing a task for which she would receive no recognition. That girl, and that moment, were a wonderful illustration of the true servant’s life and, for me, reflected something of Jesus’ life of caring.

This song is a feeble, but well-intended attempt, to capture the significance of a simple moment, a common sight, a "little, nameless, unremembered act of kindness and love." They are all around us, you know.

The picture was taken the day after I wrote the song and when I was visiting with Ann, the gardener, at the garden referred to in the song. (Thanks to Sandy Scarborough for the photo.)

I am watching the girl in the garden
silently working alone
with the ones she has watched since their childhood
the ones she has loved as they’ve grown

she kneels among radiant color
and harvests the ones she will use
to fill up the vases of blessing
lavender, champagne and blues

she cuts them with gentle intention
of giving their beauty away
the ones she has cared for, she lovingly wounds,
to brighten a traveler’s day

i am watching the girl in the garden
an artist in petals and grace
i am seeing a girl in a garden
reflecting a far away Face

what must she think while she’s working
what pictures must pass through her mind
she fears not the lack of attention
the beauty rewards here just fine

she has clouds in her fingers
blue skies in her gaze
and sunlight that softens her hair
she has dirt in her palms
from the gardener’s day
but the wisdom to know not to care

there are sunsets the shades of galardia
there are skies of delphinium blue
in this garden of holy creation
where she’s chosen the work she will do

i am watching the girl in the garden
an artist in petals and grace
i am seeing a girl in a garden
reflecting a far away Face ….