35 
Secret Garden-Room of the Heart

Amanda and Betsy arrived at the secret room. Amanda closed the floor-door behind them; then they sat down on the bare wood together. The room was dark and Amanda left it that way. No words had passed between them as they came, and now they were quiet a few more moments as the serious mood between them deepened. At length Amanda spoke.

“This room,” she said, “is just like your heart, Betsy. It is in the middle of the house where no one can see it. Someone looking from the outside would never know it is here. And for years no one did know it was here, until my brother discovered it.”

She paused briefly.

“That’s the way our hearts are,” Amanda went on. “Most people don’t even know they contain a secret place just like this room—a secret place where Jesus wants to live. We all have a secret room inside us, but most people don’t even know it. That’s too bad, isn’t it?”

“Yes,” replied Betsy. “What if they never find it?”

“It is very sad, but some people never do. They never know about the room in their heart. They go through life and never explore the secret places of their house. Grandma Maggie once told me that it was like a mystery—the most important mystery in the world—and that every person must solve that mystery and discover that secret for himself, in the same way that George discovered the mystery of this secret room.”

Amanda paused briefly.

“But you know about your secret room now, don’t you, Betsy?” she went on. “So you don’t have to be one of those people who never solve the mystery. You can discover your secret room.”

Betsy took in her words thoughtfully.

“And when we invite Jesus to come live in the secret room of our hearts,” Amanda went on, “he will be there always with us, a special friend living in our house, a friend we can see and visit and talk to anytime we want—our very own special friend. Isn’t that a wonderful thought?”

“Oh yes,” replied Betsy, eyes aglow. The moment she realized she wanted to be good, and wanted Jesus’ help, the doors of her soul began to open. It is within the hearts of those whose desire it is to grow and change toward goodness that the daystar of understanding will always arise, as it was now rising in the heart of Elsbet Conlin.

“It is as if there was a secret treasure right here in this room—”

As Amanda said the words Betsy could not help glancing around, even in the darkness, with sudden curiosity.

“—But Jesus living in our hearts is even better than a secret treasure,” said Amanda. “Because sometimes treasure makes people greedy. But Jesus helps us be good, and makes nice things grow. That’s the difference between this room and the secret place of our hearts where Jesus lives. This is just an empty room with nothing in it. But imagine if this room had a skylight instead of a roof, a skylight to let in sun and rain. And imagine if this floor wasn’t made of wood but was good, rich dirt, and that this secret room was able to grow beautiful flowers in it. That’s the way our hearts are. There is a garden inside it. So when we invite Jesus to come live there, he changes the dark secret room into a garden and gets very busy tending it, making nice character-flowers grow.”

“I want him living in my heart,” said Betsy. “I want Jesus to be in my secret room.”

“Then all you have to do is ask him. The door to the room is unlocked. He will come in as soon as you open the door.”

“How do I open the door?”

“Just talk to him, invite him to make his home in your heart. As soon as you do, he comes in.”

“Will I . . . hear him or feel him?”

“No . . . you will just know he has come in.”

“Then . . . how should I ask him?” said Betsy. “Where is he?”

“He is everywhere. He is here with us right now.”

“He is!”

“Yes, and he is listening and just waiting for you to ask.”

When the moment is right, no prodding is necessary. And Betsy needed none.

“Jesus, wherever you are,” she began at once, eyes wide and expectant, “please come into the secret room of my heart, like Amanda says. I want you to live inside me, and to be my friend and make me good like my daddy said. I want nice flowers to grow inside me. I am sorry for hating those bad men. . . .”

As Amanda listened, she remembered the day her father led her and George through a prayer to accept the Lord as their Savior many years ago. She had done so, and meant it, as much as she was capable of at the time with so many conflicting thoughts in her young brain about the sudden spiritual changes that had come to their family. And through the years since, as she had grown and drifted away, she had known all along that she was still a Christian, even if a rebellious one.

And now she found herself praying similar words to Betsy’s to reaffirm her own new commitment to the faith that had earlier been her father’s.

Lord, prayed Amanda silently, I too am sorry for the weeds I have allowed to grow in my heart’s garden. It is sin and I know it. Please forgive me. Thank you for not giving up on me during all those years I tried to give up on you. I know you are in my heart because you never left. But I want now to rededicate myself to you—not partially, but completely. So I give myself anew to you, every part of my life. Take me over completely. Thank you for dying for me, and for the new life of your resurrection. I feel almost as if I had been dead myself and have been raised with you. If anyone deserved to die, it was me, not my father or you. Yet you kept loving me all through my rebellious years. Even though my father is now with you, I feel more alive than ever before. All I can do is thank you and devote myself to you completely.

Amanda had hardly been listening, but now Betsy’s voice again came into her hearing.

“. . . and I will try to be good, if you will help me pull bad weeds out of my heart.”

Betsy stopped and turned toward Amanda.

“What do I do now?” she asked. “I don’t feel any different.”

“Jesus is in your heart now,” replied Amanda. “So start talking to him as your friend, and keep asking him to help you pull the weeds of sin and grow sweet-smelling flowers. Go to the secret room whenever you can, just as we come here whenever we want. With Jesus in our hearts we can go there too, to visit him and talk to him, ask for his help with the sin-weeds that are troubling us, and especially to ask him what he wants us to do.”

“How does he tell you?” asked Betsy.

“By putting the feeling of what is right and what is wrong inside you,” replied Amanda, “and then urging you to do what is right. He also says things in the Bible that we are to do. Mother and Catharine and I can help you learn some of those things. Like forgiving our enemies. That is something we may not feel like doing, or sometimes may not even want to do. But with Jesus in our hearts, we have to do it, because he tells us to. He is not only our friend, he is also our Master. So we must do as he says.”

“It sounds fun,” said Betsy. “Is he really alive and right with us all the time?”

“He is. But some of the things he tells us to do can be very hard. It is not easy to forgive your enemies. But when we do those difficult things, he will make us much happier for it.”

Amanda reached over and found the switch to turn on the light. The two of them squinted at first as their eyes became accustomed to the brightness.

“Do you know what you just did, Betsy?” said Amanda. “You turned on the light in your secret room by inviting Jesus to come in. Now it will never be dark in there again.”