Pains and Gains

I'll do my best with this today; I've got one finger bandaged up and several others festering with thorns. That makes for an awfully clumsy effort on the keyboard. We're in the final day of a three day weekend and I've taken advantage of it to get my yard in some semblence of gardened order. I've been away the balance of three weeks now and the natural order of things is beginning to show. Earlier in the Summer one of the tropical storms had blown down a couple of trees, and I had to replant those after cutting up and removing the old ones. In other places, things were simply getting out of hand. During the course of my labors, I have decided that nearly all created things in South Florida, whether human, plant or animal; will bite you, scratch you, or stick a thorn in you. Caution is a word of health at this latitude.

I used a cane blade Saturday to whack my index finger. It's becoming evident that I will lose the inside portion of that finger alongside the nail bed. You know. it's amazing what all you use your index finger for that you never think about until you need it and can't use it. I haven't been able to pick my nose in three days now. Most of my other fingers have various thorns imbedded from sundry vines and trees. There are four plants down here you must handle with extreme care. 1.)Robellini Palm 2.) Bouganvilla Vine (Thought by some to be a close relative of the vine used to make Jesus' Crown of Thorns) 3.)Chinese Fan Palm and lastly number 4.)Ric-Rac (Zipper Plant) Number 4 is the primary one I'm suffering with today. It is so sharp, you don't realize you've been had for a day or two when the festering begins. The spines are so sharp that they go in too deeply to remove and so easily you don't know it at the time. You have to wait 2-3 days on the pressure of festering pus to push them back into reach of a sharp knife or tweezers. By day two or three, a fella truly becomes aware of his trespasses. Just for the record, I have all four of these plants in the yard. The upside is it really discourages anyone from wanting to browse around under our windows after dark. And all are unimaginably gorgeous in natural beauty.

Anyway I didn't start out to tell you all that. I wanted to share the thoughts that wandered into my mind as I worked at cutting back the overgrown vines and plants. The area I cleared back is really rather raw and ugly after the buzz cut, but it is such a necessary thing. Those areas are so rough and ragged now but, all of the scars and gaps left in those plant beds will heal and be restored more glorifully than ever. Like a bad haircut, it will grow back. Christ himself said in John Chapter 15 that God will cut every branch in us that bears no fruit. Being cut down to size is a a part of reaching greater potential whether in shrubbery or man. Sometimes it is necessary to trim back the shrubbery or cut down a tree in order to get the most fruitful and productive lawn. Sometimes we must bear a painful trimming ourselves. That may come in the form of a frustrated and angry spouse, sometimes through the straying of our children. It could even come in the form of a lost job or punishment. The important thing to remember is we don't always know why God is trimming our own branches anymore than those dumb mute bushes knew why I was trimming them. Isaiah 55 is a wonderful Chapter extolling God's ways and thoughts as being so much higher than our ways. Sometimes we just have to accept on blind trusting faith the reasons for our Creator's actions. When we were six months old, we couldn't fathom the mystery of bipedal locomotion. When we were two, we couldn't fathom the mystery of speech. When we were ten, we couldn't fathom the mystery of the laws of physics...some of us still can't. The point is...just imagine what all we still can't fathom in the mind of the one who set those very laws of physics and natural order into motion. Sometimes, things just are, but rest assurred in this one promise. "All things work together for good to those who love Him." We may not understand the depth or purpose of his algebra...but we can be assurred it is a purposeful and productive pruning. We will benefit of more and sweeter fruit. Our wounds will heal, and anything that does not kill us, makes us stronger. Even death itself only transports us to Glory.

Of course I can't produce a post without observing (and commenting) on something contrary that my wife is sure to prune a branch or two on me about. But anyway, I've spent three days laboring away, in total joy lest you think I complain, in my yard. As I finished up today and held my own body in growing discomfort, I see a lawn service truck pull up to the neighbor's house. Now this man and woman who live there are 20 years younger than me and appear in perfect health. I, on the other hand, have been cautioned by various doctors to not only stay indoors out of the sunlight, but to avoid as much physical labor as possible. But regardless of the cautions and the sometimes agonizing results of laboring at my landscape efforts...sitting inside all the time is a greater pain than my illness. One of my greatest joys in life is being a part of one of God's greatest displays (the natural world as he intended it to be). As painful as the physical toil is on my body, the dirt under my fingernails provides a greater salve to my spirit. Sometimes I think this one desire of mine helps me to sympathize with folks suffering with drug or alcohol dependency. I know what I'm doing to my body, but I just can't help myself. I firmly believe that God assigned us constant gardening duties at the fall of man. Of course he could keep a more beautiful garden if he chose to (and as he once did), but we now have been assigned that task. Don't believe it?...Just leave your lawn to him for about a month in Summer and see what happens. If you don't know what I'm talking about, just go back and read the 3rd chapter of Genesis and ponder on it for a while. And with all that in mind, these two neighbors of mine (neither of which have a job but have enormous disposable incomes) have a lawn service come cut the grass for them. Both of these people live off of a huge monthly stipend of tax money paid to them just because they are of a certain cultral background. My money and your money. Just bugs me I guess that two able bodied people can be so lazy. I do sometimes have Nick cut the grass, but it is more of a lesson for him than a desire for me to not do it. I know all along I'm going to have to go out and do it again behind him anyway...but it keeps him from being a loaf. I'm somewhat ashamed I continue to let this get to me. I understand it is not my business and I'm already suffering conviction over it. It shows judgment, and is not a Christian thing to say for sure. Judging others is a sin in my life I struggle with and I have no doubt Tilena and my two Pastors will bring it to my attention. That's just a weed that must be pulled from my mind. Not to mention I just taught a lesson at church a few weeks back about letting anger control us. So anyway, forget the whole thing...I promise to try to do that myself.

I pray your New Year is prosperous and full of God's Glory. Mine certainly is. I still await the promised photos of Christy, Carlton and Emma Grace and I will post them as soon as I have them in my hands. About three weeks now until Clayton Parker Giddens shows himself to the world....I am eagerly awaiting the day.

May God's Grace abound.

Don & Company