Back To Life

I just thought I would share a little thought from my week.  Believe me, my friends, this is not a boast.  Please, read to the end.

My yard is really like a jungle.  If you stand still more than five seconds, there is a good chance your feet are going to be covered by ants.  If you should stand still more than three days, there is a good chance you are going to be covered in weeds.  I have never seen such in my entire life!  Well, I made a vow to myself this year, that since I was going to be at home all the time, I was going to keep my flower beds weed free.  Wow!  It has been so hard!  Yet, I had been doing an okay job.

One day a several weeks ago, my husband decided to sell a lawnmower to trade up.  He got a call one day from a widow lady who wanted to look at it.  She came and fell in love with our place and said she would come back with her sister and brother-in-law to get the lawnmower.  When she came back, she told us we had been awarded The Garden Club's yard of the month.  I was honored, but I was a little embarrassed.  I take care of our yard for our enjoyment in God's wonders, not to be showy.  Is that a real word?  Anyway, we knew she would be coming back to take a photo of the yard, so I have been taking extra care to make sure there were no weeds and to make sure everything that the sprinklers couldn't reach got watered and looked nice.  Well, last week, everything quite literally fell apart.  The sprinklers stopped working and I got really sick.  It was the first time in nearly two years that I have been sick.  Wouldn't you know it?  When I first got sick, I still tried to water the plants.  I barely succeeded, but I couldn't even get the hose reeled back up on the broken hose reel.  So, there it lay, waiting on me.  lol.  By the end of the week, I lost my two new lemon verbena plants and five of my new lavender plants.  :(  The grass looked really awful, and the weeds were horrible.  I just had to hope that I would quickly feel well enough to get back out in the yard before the lady came back to take the picture.

Well, I did finally recover.  On Tuesday, I think it was, I felt well enough that I planned to tackle the yard before all hope was lost.  When I got up, however, my husband needed me to go run an errand.  Now, this errand required me to drive 45 minutes one way.  Upon returning home, the children and I had to go with him another 45 minutes in the other direction.  He needed us to go in case he bought the old farm truck he was going to look at.  He didn't buy it, and we headed back home.  On the way home, we realized he needed to go get feed for the pigs.  Upon returning home later in the evening, we found a sign in our yard.

I was so embarrassed!  I asked my husband to call her and tell her what had happened, but he didn't have her number anymore.  In the meantime, I worked last night and this morning getting most of the weeds out of the beds, and our sprinkler system was fixed this morning.  We were finally able to reach lady this afternoon.   We asked if she could give the award to someone else this month, but she couldn't without it being a big ordeal.  Thankfully, she had not taken a picture for the paper!  She said she would come back Monday morning!  What a blessing!  The grass should have time to green back up some, and my flowers should have enough time to not look so wilted.

As I watered the flowers this evening, my mind wondered as if often does to a greater story behind the chaos.  I thought of how my yard fiasco mirrors our lives through God's eyes so often.  How many of us find ourselves going through life thinking we have it all together?  Then all of a sudden, through a bad choice or a rough turn of events, we become ugly on the inside.  One bad decision leads to another and, with each decision, we die a little more.  Soon, we can hardly be recognized.  Just as I felt hope for my yard slipping away, we feel there is no hope for us.  But I have good news, my friend!  If we can come to God, there is hope!  I had seen my yard at it's best, just as God has seen us at what we thought was our best.  I also watched my yard begin to die before me, just as God watches us as sin causes us to die.  If my simple, human heart ached over watching my yard die when I knew the solution, how in the world must God feel to watch us dying in our sin when he has provided the solution, life eternal, through his own son?  Oh, how he must hurt and long for us to turn to his answer, Jesus, our savior!  Can you imagine how he must feel when we do?  Just as I get to watch my yard come back to life, God gets to watch us come back to life when we accept his gift of forgiveness.  How beautiful it must be for him to watch his children return!

I am so thankful he has forgiven me of my sins and has brought me back to life!  I just wanted to dedicate this post to praising him for what he as done for me and for my family!  I want to praise him for giving me the courage and boldness to share with others!  He has placed in my life some beautiful Christian ladies when he knew I needed them most, and I am so grateful!  Thank you, reader, for taking a moment to share in my joy!  What praise do you have for him today?

Until we meet again, may you be blessed!