100 Years Old!

Recently we have started to add books to the S.V.H.E. Library that would be considered classic, meaning that they have stood the test of time and are still being read. One such book is The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett. The text was copyrighted in 1911. This means that this book is about to celebrate its 100th birthday.

The book is about a girl named Mary Lennox of India. Her parents died in the first chapter. Then she is brought to England to live in a 600 year old mansion, Misselthwaite Mansion, owned by Mr. Archibald Craven. There Mary is left to herself with very little supervision except for an occasional appearance by Mrs. Medlock, the housekeeper, and Martha, a servant. Mary finds a secret garden. Mary also finds a crippled long forsaken boy named Colin in another section of the mansion. Colin has never left his invalid bed being bedridden from birth. Mary also meets Dickon, a local boy who likes to wander the moor and is a friend to animals. Dickon and Mary take Colin to the secret garden without anybody in the household knowing their whereabouts. There Colin is healed and learns to walk. He becomes healthy and is no longer an invalid. There Mary also receives healing. Her problems were not physical but rather emotional because of the death of her parents and the way she was raised in India. The story ends happily for all.

This past summer two of my grandchildren, ages 6 and 9, watch a video of this book. They liked it so much that they wanted me to read it to them. So I did, all 27 chapters. It did take several nights of reading. The reason I feel that this book is considered a classic is because of all the symbolism in the story. The secret garden reminded me of the Garden of Eden, Paradise. Here God met with Adam and Eve. Everything was perfect. Colin in the book kept talking about the magic of the secret garden. I believe the magic was God's presence. I believe that we as Christians can go into our secret garden and experience healing just like Mary and Colin did. How do we do that? There is an old hymn called I Go to the Garden Alone that captures what Mary and Colin must have experienced in their secret garden. I will close this blog with the words of this hymn.

I Come to the Garden Alone
by C. Austin Miles, 1913

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,
None other has ever known.
He speaks, and the sound of His voice
Is so sweet the birds hush their singing,
And the melody that He gave to me
Within my heart is ringing,
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,
None other has ever known.
I’d stay in the garden with Him
Though the night around me be falling,
But He bids me go; through the voice of woe,
His voice to me is calling.
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,
None other has ever known.