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Have you ever felt less than enough? Earlier this year, I found myself in exactly that place, while on the way to the Mount of the Beatitudes. Overlooking the Sea of Galilee, this large hill is the traditional site of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount.
There, I found myself thinking of a hymn, “In the Garden,” written by C. Austin Miles. He was a pharmacist, dispensing medication so that people could be well. But something happened along the way, and he began writing gospel songs. Leaving the pharmacy behind, he went to work for a music publishing company. He helped send songs all over the world so people could be whole.
If you, too, are feeling tired, alone and not enough, hear the words of “In the Garden,” from the perspective of grief-struck Mary Magdalene:
I come to the garden alone,
While the dew is still on the roses;
And the voice I hear, falling on my ear,
The Son of God discloses.
And he walks with me, and he talks with me,
and he tells me I am his own…
And the joy we share as we tarry there,
no other has ever known.
This message is excerpted from “On the way” by Elizabeth Hunter in the May/June 2023 Gather magazine. Today is the Fourth Sunday after Epiphany.