Dear Michael,

Greetings in the Precious Name of Jesus Christ, my Savior, Lord, and soon coming King of Kings.

There have been times while doing my State appointed job of tending the grounds, that I've thought about the phenomena of a seed's growing process. Although I till and prepare the soil, plant the seeds, water the ground, pull the weeds, remove debris and old leaves, I really have nothing to do with the actual growing of the beautiful flowers. The seeds do that all by themselves. Everything necessary to the production of the flower is contained in the seed. God alone is responsible for that.

Salvation is like that process. In the 13th chapter of the book of Matthew in the New Testament, Jesus talks about the different types of soil that seed can fall into, and the potential for it's failure to produce as well as it's potential for yielding a great harvest.

He likens the seed to the Word of God. Our hearts are the soil and those He has called to proclaim the Gospel are the sowers. What He doesn't go into in detail is what it takes to make good soil, or in other words, a receptive heart.

Just ask a farmer, or a landscaper, or a gardener what it takes to make good soil. It takes a great deal of preparation. I know this myself because I've been  responsible for maintaining the landscaping of many gardens here in the prison for several years.

Since our hearts are the ground upon which God sows the seed of His Word, and since He would rather see every heart produce a great yield of fruit than not, and since He is, by all I can surmise, the Master Gardener, it seems reasonable for me to believe that it is His desire to prepare our hearts to receive His Word so that they can produce the most glorious harvest.

How does God do that? I don't know that I have an absolute and definitive answer, but I've come to understand some of the ways in which our hearts are prepared by God to receive from Him all the glorious seeds He desires to plant in us.

Throughout our lives, He sends people to minister to us. Some come with the water of compassion to quench our parched and thirsty hearts that have become hardened through tragedy and adversity. Most of the time, when we are hurting the worst and our hearts are closed the most, we don't even recognize those that God has sent to us. We don't realize that they are His agents of love.

I don't know of anyone who hasn't, at some point in their lives,  had their heart plowed through with pain, suffering, loss, disappointment, sadness, hurt or anger. But sometimes it can be that type of painful plowing that best turns the soil of our souls so as to enable God to deposit His Mercy and Grace into us, if only we'll let Him.

God will always send someone into your life at just the right moment, with encouragement, hope, a smile, an act of unselfish kindness, just when things look the bleakest. He's depositing seeds through the hands of those He knows and trusts.

Prayer is another way that God prepares the human heart to receive the seed of His Word. I know I'd not be a Christian today, had not the God of Heaven and Earth placed it upon the hearts of countless people to pray for me back in 1969. I certainly didn't deserve such consideration from God. Nor did I deserve such compassion from those God used to pray for me. But they were faithful to pray for me none-the-less, and God used their prayers to orchestrate a softening of my hardened heart, so desperately in need of love and healing.

It is absolutely amazing to me, when I reflect upon how much work and attention God put into preparing my little heart. The more I consider how much effort God puts into reaching down from Heaven to touch us and lift us up, well, it causes me to tremble. How much He must love us. When I consider that He sent His own Son into this world to redeem the lost, and that He didn't stop trying with the death of his Son, Jesus Christ, or with His resurrection. But that even today, He is still sending down from Heaven to those who know Him and Love Him, the call to prayer for those who don't know Him and with whom He longs and desires to impart the gift of Eternal Life.

And yet He doesn't stop there either. As each heart is opened up, through His Amazing Grace, to the gift of Eternal Life and the gift of Faith, and as each person receives Jesus into their lives ("for we are saved by GRACE THROUGH FAITH; and that not [by the work] of yourselves, it is the gift of God." Ephesians 2:8), God continues to work in our lives to insure that we will produce fruits of righteousness for His Glory.

Of course, I don't know if you are a Christian or not, but I'm confident that you are absolutely adored by my Heavenly Father. I also know that wherever you are in your life, and whatever is going on in your heart, and whatever the events of your life are causing you to feel in the deepest recesses of your heart and soul, there is nothing going on that He doesn't know about, care about, and want to assist you through. I'm also confident that He has sent, and will continue to send, people who care about you and who will love you. And I've no doubt in my heart or mind that He has someone, perhaps hidden to your eyes and knowledge, who is praying for you today. You may never know who those praying souls are, but I want to assure you that they are there. They will lift your most urgent needs to His Thrown, and those prayers He will indeed answer.

Sometimes we can hinder answers to prayer by not being receptive and open to the belief that God really cares about us. Please don't let those pebbles of doubt turn into boulders of disbelief. Don't let weeds of despair, discouragement, bitterness and hatred grow up in your heart. Weeds can choke a sprouting seed to death, preventing it from ever becoming all that it was meant to be.

The book of Proverbs has such a word of admonition and encouragement to us. "Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life." Proverbs 4:23.

A garden in a prison will grow just as well as a garden in your back yard, or in a city park, or anywhere else in the world. It doesn't matter where the garden is, what matters is how well it is taken care of. If it's going to be beautiful and bring joy to all those who come into contact with it, or pass through it, someone has to care for it.

Our lives are like gardens. If we let God into our lives and allow Him to till the soil of our souls, pull out the weeds, water us with His nurturing Love, plant the seed of the Word of God into our hearts, we can grow and thrive and bring Glory to God who created us, as well as bring joy and pleasure to all who are near us. The fragrance of our lives is such a fleeting thing. An Orchid blooms perhaps once a year, it's fragrance delighting the senses with an exquisite scent for only a few days. Our souls, however, if yielded to the Master Gardener's care, will produce a fragrance that will delight the heart of God not only here in this Earth, but as an eternal source of Glory to God in Heaven.

Audrey Mieir, a lovely woman of God, once told me many years ago, "Susan, bloom where you've been planted." I would like to encourage you to place your life into the Hands of the Master Gardener and bloom right where you are.

The Bible says, "...the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much." James 5:16.  I will be praying for you. I may not know everything about you, or what trials and tests of fire you may be enduring, or the conditions of your heart, but I do know that my Heavenly Father knows you and that He hears and answers my prayers.

I've found in my prayer life, as in my walk with Christ here in prison, that things don't always change right away. And sometimes circumstances and situations don't change the way I'd like them to. But this I do know, that whenever I've humbled my heart and yielded the soil of my soul to God's capable hands, He's changed the condition of my heart and filled it with more love and understanding.

It takes time to see the evidence of a seed's production. Sometimes that seed doesn't look like it's going to develop at all. Then all of a sudden, one day a sprout is there. Different seeds have different maturation periods. Sometimes it takes time for some prayers to be answered. Others seem to be answered right away. But this I am confident in, that a prayer in accordance with His Word, lifted in Faith to God, will be answered.

I mentioned earlier that I don't know if you are a Christian or not. I don't know if you once knew Jesus and have backslidden, or even whether you know who Jesus Christ is at all. I'd like to let you know that He knows who you are, and that He'd love nothing more than to live right inside your heart and to give you the gift of His life, Eternal Life. You can receive Jesus Christ into your heart simply by admitting that you have sinned and believing that Jesus Christ died for your sins, and that He was buried and rose again from the dead. One of my favorite scriptures is, "If you will confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus, and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you shall be saved." Romans 10:9.  Isn't that the most wonderful news in the world? I know that it changed my life some 22 years ago. I've been blooming right here ever since. Praise God!

May your life bloom with peace, joy, abundant life, and the light and life of God's love for you, right where you are.

Sincerely, I remain your faithful sister in Jesus Christ.

Mrs. Susan Atkins-Whitehouse