by Sheila Rae Watson

Created on: November 14, 2008   Last Updated: November 27, 2008

"I believe for every drop of rain that falls, a flower grows."

As a child of the 60s I heard and fell in love with a terrific song entitled "I Believe". The first time I heard this song, it brought tears to my teeny-bopper eyes. I longed to be that person, the one who believed in such a way that to see the rainstorm was a blessing. I had never thought of that.

How can that measure of faith be activated?

You see, in order for a flower to grow, a seed has to be present. It needs to have been buried; the outer shell must be cracked; it must die. The seed needs water amd fertile soil in order to grow.

My 13-year-old heart was that fertile soil. It longed for the flowers to grow! However, the right kind of seed must be planted, good seed! I believe this song was my good seed, quietly, lovingly planted into my heart by a majestic unseen hand, the hand of God..

I received the seed willingly, with a tender, broken, teenage heart. Little did I know how it would grow, what flowers it would spread, or that weeds might sprout up along with the flowers.

You see, other seed, too, had been planted into my child's heart. Unwelcome and unknown weed seeds had been placed there. Seeds of fear, rebellion, confusion, and big seeds of self-reproach and failure were lying there with the precious seed in my fertile soil. These seeds, too, were planted-but not by God. The garden of my heart had received seeds before He began to till the soil in my teen years.

All seeds thrown into a child's heart grow-all of them. There must be a gardener! Who will tend the garden? Many gardeners eye the tender heart, many long to tend the garden, many will, many did. But how did the garden grow?

"I believe that somewhere in the darkest night, a candle glows".

Darkness comes in many forms, sometimes covered in a blanket of ignorance, tolerance, or even innocence. Every garden needs the dark. Without the dark, we would never learn to appreciate the light. There is not a darkness so black that God's love cannot break through and bring that soul into the His light.

The dark days did come to my garden, the weed seeds did grow, some even flowered. How could I have known the bad flowers had grown-how could I have known? You see, not all flowers that grow from weed seeds smell bad. Some emit another fragrance, one of deception, and/or giving off a loftiness they don't deserve. We stop and pick these pretty flowers, not knowing they are full of bugs and spines. These weed flowers had grown, pushing back the One

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