Advent Day 17: December 18th
The Treasure Outside My Door

The inmates in a prison where I volunteered were given a patch of earth for a garden. The dimensions of their small piece of soil were minimal, and the dirt was unforgiving. It didn't seem possible that a small tomato plant (or any plant) could be nourished by such adverse conditions. Yet against all odds, one spring day the first green shoots broke through the soil, and later in the summer the inmates were feasting on sandwiches filled with fresh, home-grown tomatoes.

It was a time of great joy for them. That simple sandwich was elevated to a level and meaning it would never have had if they had ordered it in a restaurant or made it in their own home. In a way, they had found something they were all searching for. They stepped right outside their own door, a prison door, and fell in love with what was there. The barbed wire surrounding the yard became irrelevant. One prisoner remarked that the magnolia blossoms on the "freedom side" of the large tree next to the prison wall provided an intoxicating perfume that made no distinction. It offered itself freely to those moving in the world outside the prison as well as to those behind bars.

The challenge is, will we let our life stories carry us to God? A patch of earth can free us if we're able to see what it truly is.


by Paula D'Arcy, Redbird Foundation
from the book: Daybreaks