The Bible as a Garden: Learning to Walk Through Scripture with Serena
Updated: 2 days ago
Learning My Way Through the Bible
When I first opened the Bible, I was overwhelmed by the number of books in it. I desperately wanted to remember the individual books and the different literary genres in both Testaments. I admired children who could recite them from memory, one after another, in perfect order. I wondered, how do they do that? Will I ever manage it?
With time, I began to learn my way around.
When I stopped using the online version and went the old-fashioned way - opening the Bible, turning pages, and searching for a particular passage - I slowly began to recognize its different parts. I started to think of the books as roads: highways, main roads, and smaller roads belonging to them. Somehow, that made the whole landscape easier for me to remember.
I still can’t name all the books by heart, but I’m learning to find my way through the Bible like someone walking in a forest. I may not know the name of every path, and I occasionally take a wrong turn, but at least I’m no longer surprised to find myself among the prophets when I was looking for a Psalm!
The New Testament is simpler - fewer books to remember. I imagine them as four highways - the four Gospels. 🤍💮
The letters of Paul, Peter, John, and James, along with the Acts of the Apostles, are like main roads. Each book is a road of its own, leading me through a different part of the biblical landscape. Some roads belong to the same route, like Paul’s letters, while others take me in a different direction.🤍💮
In the Old Testament, I found my way by landmarks: Psalms, Proverbs, the stories of Genesis, the historical books, the prophets. 🤍💮 Little by little, the names that had once looked like a long, intimidating list began to become familiar places.
And my way of reading and searching changed with time, too.
The more I walked through Scripture, the less it felt like a list of books I had to memorize and the more it began to feel like a landscape I could enter.
Some roads became familiar. Others remained mysterious. Some led me quickly to a place I knew well; others invited me to slow down, look around, and discover something I had never noticed before. And... I picked my favourites.😊
Perhaps that is why I now see the Bible a little differently. It feels like a garden.
There are many kinds of flowers, herbs, trees, paths, colours, scents, and hidden corners.
There is poetry and history, wisdom and prophecy, stories and songs, letters and visions.
The Bible is a library of 73 books, written in different literary forms, yet held together within the one great story of God's relationship with humanity.
And perhaps, Serena is simply learning how to walk through this garden, one path, one flower, one little Word at a time.
Walking Through the Meadow of Scripture with Serena
You might use Serena’s poetic walk as a starting point for your own meditation.
On a sunlit summer day, beneath a slate-blue sky, Serena wandered through the meadow of Scripture.
She was speechless with wonder at the diversity of flowers scattered across the meadow. Some stood tall and proud; others hid close to the ground. Some were delicate and almost unnoticed, while others opened wide to the sun.
The Bible, she thought, was a meadow of living words, where every flower had its own beauty and every path invited her to discover something new - a gathering of different kinds of flowers, herbs, and wild grasses. Different colours. Different scents. Different shapes. Different seasons.
Stories and songs. Wisdom and prophecy. Poetry and letters. History and prayer. Lament and praise. Words that whisper and words that wake you up.
Serena walked slowly, letting the meadow speak.
She came upon a tall clump of white, pink, and purple cosmos flowers. She wrapped both arms around them. She pressed her face into their delicate blooms and began to sing the psalms: Psalm 103,2, Psalm 150,6, Psalm 34,1
“Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits.”
“Let everything that has breath praise the LORD.”
“I will bless the LORD at all times; his praise shall continually be in my mouth.”
The cosmos swayed around her as though the flowers themselves were singing.
After a while, Serena loosened her embrace and continued, taking slow, unhurried steps.
Then she bent over the white, umbrella-like clusters of yarrow. She touched them gently.
And Isaiah began to speak through her lips: Isaiah 40,31
“Those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles.”
She stood still for a moment. The white flowers trembled in the summer breeze. When she turned her head at the sound of the wind, her hand brushed against the story of Abigail in the Book of Samuel. Serena stopped.
There was beauty there, but not the fragile kind. Abigail was pretty and intelligent. She stepped into anger without becoming anger. She carried wisdom into a place where everything was about to explode. Her words became a bridge between rage and peace.
Serena touched the pages of her story as though they were another flower growing in the meadow. Then, sitting among the grasses, she began to shell flax seeds she had gathered, nibbling them slowly as she read.
She lifted her hands toward heaven and praised God with the Magnificat: Luke 1,46-47,
“My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Saviour.”
She smiled. Mary's song felt like a wildflower growing straight through the pages of Scripture.
Then Serena picked a few poppy heads. She twirled slowly through the meadow, scattering their tiny seeds as she went.
Seeds of praise.💮
Seeds of remembrance.💮
Seeds of hope.💮
She whispered Psalm 23,1 and then Ecclesiastes 3,1,💮
“The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.”
“For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven.”
And finally, with the poppy seeds falling from her fingertips, she hummed Psalm 119,105
“Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.”
The meadow was still there. The Bible was still open. But Serena was no longer simply walking through the Scriptures. She was walking with them.
One flower at a time. One Word at a time. One little seed of praise at a time. And perhaps this is what happens when we stop treating the Bible as a book we must finish and begin meeting it as a meadow we can enter.
There is always another flower.💮
Another scent.💮
Another hidden herb.💮
Another story waiting beneath the leaves.💮
And sometimes, if we walk slowly enough, a Word will lean toward us and begin to speak.
How the Bible Became a Garden of Many Books
A Little History of the Bible
The Bible is not one book written by one person. It is a library of 73 books in the Catholic canon: 46 in the Old Testament and 27 in the New Testament, written across many centuries, in different places and literary forms.
The Old Testament grew from the faith and history of Israel. Most of it was written in Hebrew, with some Aramaic, while several deuterocanonical books are preserved in Greek. Before the time of Christ, many Hebrew Scriptures were translated into Greek in the Septuagint, which became important in the early Christian world.
The 27 books of the New Testament were written in the first century after Christ, within the communities of the first Christians. They include Gospels, history, letters, and apocalyptic literature. They were written in Greek and gradually recognized by the Church as belonging to the canon.
By the fourth century, the 27-book New Testament was broadly established. In the Western Church, Latin became especially important through the Vulgate, associated with St. Jerome's late-fourth/early-fifth-century revision and translation work.
Much later, Scripture became increasingly available in the languages spoken by ordinary people. The Catholic Church formally confirmed the 73-book canon at the Council of Trent in 1546.
And perhaps this is part of the wonder: today I can open the Bible in my own language and walk into this enormous meadow of voices - history, poetry, prophecy, wisdom, prayer, story, Gospel, letters, and praise and discover that the Word written so long ago still meets me where I am today.
Every Flower Has Its Own Voice
A garden would be rather boring if every flower were the same. The Bible is like that, too.
Genesis does not sound like Psalms. Psalms do not sound like Isaiah. Isaiah does not read like one of the Gospels. Paul's letters sound different again, and Revelation takes us into a world of visions, symbols, and images.
The Bible is a library of many books and many literary voices. There are stories and songs, poetry and wisdom, prophecy and letters, history and visions. Each has its own way of speaking, its own rhythm, its own language. The Church reminds us that paying attention to these literary forms helps us understand what the sacred writers intended to communicate.
So perhaps we can enter Scripture the way we enter a garden.
When we come to a psalm, perhaps we listen for the song.💮
When we meet a story in Genesis, we watch the people, the movement, the promises, and the choices.💮
When Isaiah begins to speak, we slow down for the images and the prophetic voice.
When Paul writes a letter, we remember that someone is writing to real people with real questions and struggles.💮
And when Revelation opens its strange and beautiful world before us, we don't expect it to speak like a history book. We allow its symbols and visions to speak in their own language.
I once stood at the entrance of this enormous garden and didn't know where to begin. Over time, I learned the paths. Now come walk with me.
I hope my way can help you learn to approach the Bible as a rich garden of different books, literary forms, voices, and paths so you feel less overwhelmed and more at home in Scripture.
We don't have to know everything about the Bible before we enter it. We can just begin walking. Of course, some flowers may look familiar while others leave us wondering whether we should know their names. And occasionally, we might mistake a thistle for a rose!
Remember? Every flower has its own voice.
Learning to recognize those voices is part of learning how to walk through the garden of Scripture.
💮🤍💮
Thank you for walking so far and spending a little time with me. 💛
I’m grateful for every woman who stops by, reads a few words, pauses for a moment, and perhaps carries one little thought with her into the rest of the day.
If something here spoke to your heart, take it with you. And if you feel like sharing what you discovered, I’d love to hear from you.
Blessings & Hugs,
BE 💕
This final letter to Serena, 3/3, is about Christian love and identity, about who you must become to welcome the love your heart truly longs for.
If holiness had a scent, I think it would be the smell of coffee in the morning - warm, comforting, real. Just coffee, in the quiet corners of our everyday lives.
A song can calm my thoughts, awaken a memory, or make my heart feel something before I can explain it. Perhaps God’s Word can do the same.
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