Poem: 'Alone in the Garden'

Alone in the Garden

 Alone in the garden He prayed

That there might be another way;

Alone in the garden He stayed

In obedience.  All He could say,

‘Father, not My will, but Yours,

Whatever You want I will do:

Wherever You ask Me to go,

I’ll go in obedience to You.’

Alone in the garden He knew

The sorrow that lay ahead;

Alone in the garden so true

To the thoughts in His heart and His head.

An angel appeared from heaven

To give strength to His resolve;

To help Him, in His agony,

The Father’s will to solve.

Alone in the garden, in agony

He prayed to His Father above;

Alone in the garden, He knew

That peace would come only through love.

And as the beads of sweat

Dropped down upon the earth,

They looked like drops of blood,

The blood of the second birth.

Alone in the garden He rose

Knowing that God was there.

Alone in the garden He turned

From the agony of His prayer.

Then coming back to His disciples

He found them sleeping in their sorrow,

And bid them ‘Watch and pray’

To be ready for the morrow.

 © Colin Gordon-Farleigh

 (Painting: Christ in Gethsemane' by Carl Bloch)