Henry Jones and his wife Claire have recently been reunited as man and wife after separately and miraculously encountering the risen Jesus Christ. They have discovered a living dynamic relationship with Jesus Christ and recommitted themselves to each other.
Henry, though, is feeling discontented with himself, with his lack of understanding about his future, about God’s plans for him and his fractured relationship with his father. Yes, he is now a Christian, a disciple of Jesus Christ – but something seemed to be pulling him back, preventing him from experiencing the joy and certainty that other Christians felt.
In this story they are on a family outing, the first one after months of being separated. But was it a good idea to subject their two young sons to visiting a garden? Bored, Jamie and Ben, somewhat unwittingly, get their own back! But in that watery disaster Henry finds some answers and some unexpected healing.
The Well-watered Garden
Part 1
A garden visit
Summer was now in full swing. Henry had suggested a beautiful June afternoon for their first outing together as a family. He had driven south down the long loch towards the sea. In half an hour they had reached Henry’s chosen destination. He turned into the drive and followed the signs into a nearly empty car park. “It’s not very busy” he said to nobody in particular. “But it is getting late in the afternoon now.”
He turned off the engine and looked across at his wife. “Here we are then Claire! Our first family outing for many months”. She smiled back at him contentedly.
He looked up into the rear view mirror. He could see his two sons engrossed, one on his tablet playing a game, the other deep in a Secret Seven story.
“Guys! We’re here! Let’s go and explore!” Henry checked the expressions on the boys’ faces, expecting to see grimaces and to hear groans of dissatisfaction. But surprisingly, none came. All he thought he saw was a very fleeting resigned look, as the seven year old twins glanced at each other. To be honest for now the two boys were pleased to go anywhere with their parents, even putting up with seeing their mum and dad walking hand in hand, together again. OK, a ruined castle would have been better than this garden but hey, they were just glad to be a family again!
They left the car and walked across to the garden entrance. The entrance fee paid, they followed the signs to the first stop on the garden tour. They passed the old house, crossed a bridge over a small stream and found themselves on the edge of a large and well kept lawn. In the middle of the lawn stood a very tall tree. Henry, a forester by training, grabbed his wife’s hand and dragged her across the lawn. “I think it’s a Fir”, he pronounced as they stopped to admire it. He walked a step or two closer, looking at the bark and then at the cones and leaves around the base of the tree. “It’s almost certainly an Abies grandis!” he announced to the world. Only his wife was listening. Claire nodded. “Yes, that’s what the label says too!”
Meanwhile the boys had wandered across the front of the house and round a corner, following a sign to the walled Kitchen Garden. Despite being twins, they had very different personalities. Jamie was the bold one, Ben more reserved, less impulsive than his brother.
The Button
It was Jamie who saw it first. On the wall, by the edge of the lawn was a large button that said “Press”. “Shall I do what it says, Ben?” Jamie asked and placed his finger on the button. “No!” his brother yelled, and went to grab Jamie’s hand to pull it away. But somehow the button got pressed.
At first nothing happened. But then there was a hissing noise. At various points across the garden, sprinklers, previously hidden, popped up with military precision. And then arcs of water started shooting into the air and then revolving in circles. The boys had set off the irrigation system. Quickly they pressed the button again, but still the water streamed in rainbow arcs in the summer sunshine.
It might not have been so bad, except that their parents were standing in the middle of the lawn. Within seconds they were completely soaked. Henry was the first to spot the boys, now looking horrified at what they had done. Henry yelled at them. “Jamie, Ben – what have you done! Turn it off! Now!”
Ben yelled back “We can’t Dad. We don’t know how!”
It was at that moment their saviour appeared. A suntanned hand reached behind them and pressed the button, twice. The deluge slowly stopped and the sprinklers sighed back into the ground. All that was left was a pair of soggy parents. The boys looked at the man who had come to their rescue. He looked stern, but a slight smile was showing in the corners of his mouth and there was a twinkle in his eye. Ben managed a stuttered “Thank you Sir!” And then added: “But how did you know what to do?”
The Saviour
The man smiled. “I am the Head Gardener here” he said. “I know about these things.” He smiled again. Just then two very bedraggled parents joined them. The boys saw how cross their father was and their mum looking as if she might burst into tears, her hair smeared damply across her shoulders.
The gardener looked at the two soaked parents. “I’m so sorry!” he said. “I really should have a safer system than this one – but this is the first time it has ever happened!”
Henry smiled wanly. “No, it’s not your fault, the boys shouldn’t be playing with things that don’t concern them”. And he looked at his two sons sternly. It was the first time he had been cross with them since he and Claire had been reunited, just a week ago.
The gardener smiled. “Anyway, come with me – we need to get you dried out!” And he led them along a path, before descending down some stone steps and into a small building. It was half sunk into the ground and joined to the outside wall of the kitchen garden. “Here! Come and sit by the boiler. I lit it earlier to put some heat into my pineapple pits. This is the powerhouse of the old Victorian pinery.”
He turned to the two lads just as a boy and a girl of about the same age burst into the stovehouse. “Boys! Here are my two mischievous kids. Millie, Noah – I want you to look after these two while I dry their mum and dad out.”
Millie, the elder of the two, shouted “Come on then! And turning on her heels ran up the steps and out into the garden. The others followed. Claire was relieved to hear them politely exchanging names as they set off on a new adventure. Surely the gardener’s own children would keep the boys out of any more trouble?
Henry and Claire begin to dry out
The gardener turned to look at Henry and Claire. He could see steam beginning to rise from their clothes as they sat by the boiler. “You stay there, while I go next door and make a pot of tea. Will that help?” The couple nodded. “By the way, I’d better introduce myself. I’m Steve Wimbush, the Head Gardener. Well actually, I’m the only full time gardener here. My wife Kate runs the teashop in the main house – and you have met Millie and Noah, our two kids!”
Henry rose to his feet, water still dripping off his trousers. “Steve, I’m so grateful for your help. I’m Henry Jones and this is my wife, Claire. Those boys, who have been so troublesome, are our twins Ben and Jamie. I must apologise for them again. Our visit wasn’t supposed to end like this – it was our first family outing since Claire and I got back together again.
Steve smiled. “Well, this seems to me to be very much a God-organised meeting. But hang on a moment, I need to go and put the kettle on!”
And he disappeared through a door beyond the boiler where he could be heard running a tap. Henry and Claire looked at one another. “He mentioned God!” Henry whispered. Claire nodded.
Henry looked around him. He noticed a plaque on the wall. Henry realised it was a verse from the Bible, from the Old Testament. “The Lord will guide you always; he will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land and will strengthen your frame. You will be like a well-watered garden, like a spring whose waters never fail. (Isaiah 58:11)”.
The Missing Peace
Henry’s brow furrowed as he read the Scripture. Just that morning, before setting out, he had been talking to God about guidance, or in his case, the lack of it. He had admitted to God that he was feeling lost, unable to see the way forward for his life. Yes, he was now a Christian, a disciple of Jesus Christ – but something seemed to be pulling him back, preventing him from experiencing the joy and certainty that other Christians felt – and that at least two people had even prophesied over him. He thought back to those words the old man had spoken over him on the ferry to the Isle of Harris. He remembered them vividly! “God says “I will make you stronger than you could ever imagine, restored beyond anything you could ask or expect. Just have faith and trust in Me!””.
Those were Callum’s prophetic words. And yes, he had given his life to Jesus Christ, he had experienced the power of the Holy Spirit on the ferry, he had been Baptised in the Spirit on that beautiful spot on the Isle of Harris – yes he had a personal, supernatural relationship with God – and yet there was still something missing in his life.
It was as if an important piece of a nearly completed jigsaw puzzle was missing. And yet, at that moment, sitting there in that boiler house, he almost knew that today the missing piece was going to be found and set in place – and everything would change.
Henry looked up at the words on the wall again. They were certainly great, meaningful words – especially for a gardener like Steve. At that moment Steve returned with two mugs of steaming tea and noticed where Henry was looking. He smiled: “Ah, that scripture! I have taken that verse with me to each garden I have worked in. Those words have challenged me and guided me every day of these last 10 years, ever since I gave my life to Jesus Christ!”
Steve starts to tell his story
Henry smiled. “It’s an interesting verse, especially for a person who likes growing plants – like you, or me – I’m a forester by training! I haven’t seen this verse before – but then I only became a Christian a few weeks ago!”
Steve nodded. “It took me a little while to understand it and to cherish it as much as I do now. But may I tell you my story as you dry out?” Henry and Claire both nodded.
“Ten years ago I was coming to the end of two years travelling round the world. Supposedly looking to find myself and the meaning of life. Anyway, I hadn’t found either, and now I was back in the UK, my parents expecting I would have sorted myself out, that I was ready to go to University and had charted out the rest of my life. Sorted. “
“Unfortunately that wasn’t the case. I was now even more confused and uncertain. And then I bumped into an old girlfriend – we had been at 6th form college together. Our short romance had petered out when I announced I was going off on my own to discover the world. Kate was always the more sensible one. She had gone away to university and now was in her final year of a hospitality management degree. I didn’t know, but during her time away she had become a Christian. It was Kate who shared the scripture with me. The verse had been given to her just the night before we met up again”.
Steve was interrupted by the stovehouse door opening. A woman wreathed in smiles and wearing an flour-covered apron had negotiated the steep steps carrying a large tray of cakes. Claire and Henry both guessed that it was Kate.
Steve smiled. “Hallo dear! Is it that time already?” Kate nodded. “Yes, the teashop has just closed, and here are some cakes left over from the day’s supply! I thought I might find some takers here. The kids have had their’s already! And I heard how some unfortunate parents got a soaking!” And she turned and smiled at the gently steaming Henry and Claire.
Steve laughed. “This is good timing! I was about to explain our well-watered garden verse, but you always do it much better.”
Kate takes up the story
Kate wrinkled her nose, but removed a pile of old gardening magazines from a chair and sat down. “OK – as long as you don’t interrupt as you usually do!’ She gave her husband a look and he nodded. Kate turned to Henry and Claire.
“Well! It was the evening before Steve turned up. I was just about to head for bed when the verse suddenly appeared in my head. It must have been God because I had never heard or read the verse before – in fact I wasn’t even sure it was from the Bible. But with the help of the concordance in the back of my Bible I found it. I didn’t know why it was significant, but I found the Book of Isaiah and read the verse, as well as those either side of it, trying to see what God was wanting to say to me. In the end I fell asleep, not knowing the answer. But when I woke in the morning I knew the verse off by heart and its significance too! You see an angel visited me in a dream and told me that Steve and I would meet up again that next day. And I was to share that verse with him. Well I was surprised because I had not heard from Steve for almost two years and the last time I saw him he was a convinced atheist.”
She was about to continue when Steve interrupted. “So!” was as far as he got when he saw Kate glaring at him. Then she smiled: “Oh, go on then Steve, this is your bit of the story”
Blown up!
Steve launched into his part of the unfolding story. “Yes, it was almost two years since I had left home, my parents and Kate. After wandering the world I now found myself in the Middle East. it was 2005 and I was wandering the streets of Baghdad, in the middle of the Iraqi War. I should never have been there, but the place was full of American soldiers, which I supposed would mean the place was safe for me. I was young and foolhardy! I remember that day so well! It was 10:30 in the morning when the bomb went off. It was about 50 metres away from me but I was blown across the road and ended up in a heap against a high wall. There I lay stunned, completely unable to move.
And then I was aware of strong hands under my armpits half lifting me, half dragging me though a gate in the wall. There two women laid me by a pool with a beautiful fountain. I heard the fountain and felt its cool breeze long before I managed to force my eyes open. The other side of the wall there were shouts and cries and sirens and the sound of gunfire. But here in this garden I felt safe. Safe enough to open my eyes.
The Walled Garden
Before me was a wonderful walled garden, with palm trees and shrubs covered in flowers, running water and fountains everywhere. Maybe this was Paradise? And by my side two young women – who it turned out were the daughters of the man who rescued me. An older lady, their mother, arrived with a bowl of water and some cloths and a jar of perfumed ointment. By that beautiful fountain they gently washed away all the dirt and grime and gently applied the ointment on all my sores and bruises.
Away from the house at the far end of the garden was a summerhouse and it was there I spent the next few days. I was bruised and battered but suffered no broken bones . Even so, I was confined to the small bed set up in the summerhouse. It was there I was served my meals and a large bath run each day to ease myself into and bathe my bruises.
The man and his wife visited me, but more often than not it was the two daughters. They always came together, bringing my meals, telling me in their perfect English what the food contained and how they had prepared it. So here I was after nearly two years of travelling the world – and for the first time I felt at peace – at peace with the world and at peace with myself. In this beautiful Islamic garden I felt safe and welcomed – yes, and even loved. I was surprised, and yet not surprised, when the father shared that he and his family were Christians, something I later understood was not common, nor easy to be, in that place, at that time.
It was a few days later that the whole family came to see me and to explain that they had arranged for me to be flown home. There were no flights to the UK but they had a friend with a small plane who would fly me secretly to Tel Aviv and then home to the UK. Everything was arranged for me to fly out that night.
Well, to cut a long story short, I found myself back home in the UK so quickly that I began to think all that had happened in that last week was a dream. And yet I knew it wasn’t. I had such memories of that time – yes, the trauma of being blown up, but also the compassion of that Iraqi family and that beautiful garden where I was healed and restored.
A reunion
And yet although I was physically restored, I was ill at ease with myself. I had flown into Gatwick and had arrived home late evening but early the next morning I left the house to walk into town and reacquaint myself with English life. I walked into my favourite cafe, sat down, looked up – and saw Kate. At that same moment, across the cafe she had seen me, and there was such a look of surprise on her face.”
“Stop!” Kate commanded. “It’s my turn to take up the story!” Steve nodded.
“Do you know, somehow I was surprised to see Steve – but also not surprised. After all God had told me it would happen, and yet even so my heart leapt. And so I was compelled to go across and give Steve that scripture – before even asking how he was or where he had been. So I sat opposite him at his table and spoke those words of Isaiah to him there and then:
“The Lord will guide you continually, giving you water when you are dry and restoring your strength. You will be like a well-watered garden, like an ever-flowing spring.” Isaiah 58:11
And before I could explain anything he burst into tears!”
Steve interrupted his wife: “Yes I did! It was as if something deep inside me, something dark and restless, had been released. It left me, and I was set free, seeing for the first time my need to admit that God existed and that I needed Him. And that He wanted me.
That was awesome. I laughed and cried and wiped away tears – and then looked across at Kate. She too was looking tearful as she reached across the table to hold my hand. I don’t know what the cafe staff or the other customers thought, but it didn’t matter. It was as if there was just God, me and Kate there, together.
“So what happened next?” Claire asked.
Kate looked across to Steve. It was an indication for him to continue the story. So he did.
A life-changing decision
“That was the start of a whirlwind of a few days. Kate and I, well we talked, and talked and Kate prayed, and then we talked some more. And then eventually Kate grabbed my hand and said that I needed to commit my life to Jesus Christ. We were back in that cafe again, the staff now recognised us as the couple who had long and serious conversations. And I was the man who kept bursting into tears. Because that’s what I did, most days as we drank coffee and talked. And this time I said the prayer that admitted I was a sinner and could not save myself. That I needed Jesus, whose death on the cross has restored my relationship with my loving heavenly Father. And I welcomed Jesus into my life, as my Saviour and my Lord. And then I found myself asking Kate if she would marry me and this time she burst into tears and said yes!
“But what about the verse, did that play a part in the whole process?” Claire needed to know. She looked across at Henry. At first she felt he was just listening intently, his eyes firmly shut. But then she realised he was miles away as if in a different world.
But Steve carried on with his story. “That verse suddenly took on a wider, deeper significance. Yes, the verse reminded me of the saving grace of that lovely Christian family in Baghdad; but it was then and has remained, a promise from God that His hand will be forever on my life, and that has been true every day of these last 10 years. And that was where my future would lie,- in God’s hands.”
Claire was excited. She was remembering those heady exciting few days when when she had had a vision and a total stranger had explained the vision and introduced her to Jesus.
Henry is somewhere else
She looked across to her husband to see whether it had the same effect on him. Was he nodding in agreement too? But Henry still seemed to be somewhere else, certainly not in a garden boilerhouse with gently steaming clothes and a slowly cooling mug of tea.
It had gone quiet. Now all three of them were looking at Henry, realising he was somewhere else. In the silence, they were each waiting for something to happen, suspecting something even supernatural was happening, there in that Victorian boilerhouse.
Another Walled Garden
It wasn’t long before Henry opened his eyes, and looked around at his companions. He was smiling, yet there were tears in his eyes. His voice trembled a little as he spoke. “I’m sorry Kate, Steve, I didn’t hear the end of your story. You see as you shared that scripture with us it was as if I was transported back to a garden similar to the one you were describing. But it was different. Yes, it was walled and full of plants and a place to find peace – but it was more like this garden – though I haven’t been in walled garden yet.
Kate was eager. “Tell us more Henry, what did you see?”
Next week
In Part 2 published next Monday, Henry shares his vision and makes a momentous discovery, involving another walled garden.
All references are from the NKJV unless specified otherwise.
John Partis
bearing-kingdom-fruit.com
Text copyright © John Partis 2026
John Partis asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work
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