The Hidden Garden: a Story of the Heart

            My daughters and I were excited to learn that we would have the opportunity to preview Jane G. Meyer's latest book The Hidden Garden: a Story of the Heart.  We read it four times the afternoon we received our copy of the book.  My daughters are 8 and 4 years old, and I'm old enough not to tell my age, so we all took something different from it, but we also agreed it was a good book.  This is a book that I feel privileged to have in our library.  It is one that we will read over and over, that we will share with friends, and it is one that I hope one day many years from now to pull out and read for some grandchildren.  It is a book that I predict will become an Orthodox children's classic.

            It appealed more to my younger daughter than my older one.  After we finished it the first time, she asked to read it again, and then said, "Let's read it again and again and again."  What better endorsement could you ask?!  She was captivated by the story and by Masha Lobastov's lovely illustrations.  On our first reading, she stopped me to point out the beautiful rainbow in front of which the narrator, an old man, plays in a fountain like a boy.  She also loved the illustration of the boy with Jesus and the saints at the end of the story.  She, especially, felt a connection to the young, girl saint.  At 4 years old, she was happy just hearing the surface story of an old man nurturing a dry, dead land and turning it into a flourishing garden.

            My older daughter was able to grasp the deeper meaning in the story.  Her favorite part was when the Man kept knocking until the old man got annoyed and let him in.  When the old man finally wanted to let the Man in but couldn't find the key, the Man showed him the key.  My daughter commented, "I could even help him find the key.  The key is love."  We discussed what sorts of things cause our hearts to be like deserts– lacking love–, and what we need to do, like the old man, to make our hearts fertile and fruitful.  On each reading we stopped at the page with the old man playing in the fountain.  So, I took the opportunity to ask why it's significant that he should act like a boy.  We were able to explore the Bible story of the children coming to Jesus, and to be reminded that we must all try to hold on to the purity and innocent love of childhood.

            Finally, this book was a powerful reminder to me.  There are times when I feel like I'm lost in a desert, a sheep who can't find the flock.  And I sometimes wonder if the good shepherd is searching for me.  Even thought it is sometimes hard to hear the Man knocking at the gate, how comforting it is, even as an adult, to be reminded that our God is always reaching out to us if only we can find the key to let him in.

            We are nearing Great Lent, and as I contemplate the journey I will be making to Pascha with my family, I know that The Hidden Garden will certainly be part of that journey this year.  We will read it again and again, as my younger daughter requested, to nourish and sustain us on our spiritual journey.