When we bought our home we were taken aback by the beautiful landscaping in our back yard. The yard begins pretty flat but the major incline guides your eyes right up to the tree line at the very top. This goes without saying that you do pause for a moment to enjoy the rocks placed at the beginning of the incline centered by old wood rails that have been repurposed as steps. The rocks look absolutely stunning when properly cared for. Unfortunately, the late spring and early summer months seemed to slip between my fingers and I've found myself gawking miserably at an entangled blanket of weeds strewn about the rocks.
For the past three days I made it my purpose to uncover what I once loved about our yard. At two hours on Friday and about four to six hours on Saturday and again Sunday, I am feeling the work in every muscle of my body. I started with the patio and a smaller set of rocks that are not shown in this image and worked my way from left to right on the shown rocks. When you spend that much time alone and in the ridiculously beating sun, your thoughts sort of prance around different ideas and let me say that God, NOT the heat, breathed some ideas into my head.
Now, I know many of you loathe weeding. I mean, you're basically tearing your knees apart on gravel, spiky, itchy grass and whatever slugs and beetles are lurking around. Sweat is tickling its way down your face which you inevitably wipe with your filthy, sweat soaked gardening gloves. Your fingers tearing away, sometimes accidentally pushing your finger nail back. Lovely. Oh and the bugs, they know exactly how to really buzz right around your ear or flutter in your face like it's their job. Not cool, bugs, not cool. THAT SAID, I am sort of a lover of weeding just as I am dishes. I'm a childcare provider so both of these activities scream elongated moments alone to zone out and be free of noise, stress ... diapers. Today, my third day of weeding, I started to complain a bit in my head. Why on earth would God create these devil plants? Some of them are relatively easy to pull but they are few and far between. The majority have outrageously thick and deep roots that are apparently grabbing the earth while I am pulling in all my glory, seriously, they're holding on for life. Some are so webbed together I swear that faeries in fact do exist and have created a massive net of viney weeds and spread them in and out of and through the hundreds of rock. WHY?! This is a non believer's dream! Perfect God, huh? Well, why did he create weeds?? Of course that leads me to ask myself why is He referred to as perfect, what does that mean exactly? I'll tell you what it doesn't mean! Perfect does not mean perky and pleasant 24/7. You know the story of Noah's Ark. In Genesis 6:5, "The Lord saw how great the wickedness of the human race had become on the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the time. The Lord regretted that he had made human beings on the earth, and his heart was deeply troubled. So the Lord said, 'I will wipe from the face of the earth the human race I have created - and with them the animals, the birds and the creatures that move along the ground - for I regret that I have made them.'" Of course you can't believe in my perfect God if you think perfect has something to do with pure joy all of the time. One look at that scripture and you can tell He was pissed. Super pissed. And He acted on his frustration in a severe way. If you ask me, He's a little more like you and I than we imagined. Perfect is defined in the dictionary as absolute. God exists independently.
God is perfect in that the hope he gives is everlasting.
THAT is our perfect God that you're always hearing about or referring too.
He makes tough decisions that we can't always explain or find reason for. Satan can lay out groundwork and we often feel like God has abandoned us in that bad things happen regardless of His presence. Road blocks are far too common in life. Even something as simple as bills. I seriously have this struggle each year where I feel like I've worked my butt off, saved up all of this money for a trip or something major and then our nasty Waste Management bill creeps up on me and really makes me get a little nutty.
Weeds, people.
We get smothered by them and I know YOU know what I'm talking about. You literally can't breathe with some of the terrible things that happen at times to you or a friend or just by flipping on the news. So how do we, WHY do we go on another day? Don't we see or at least hope for a silver lining?
I finished my work in the yard today. I felt disgusting and chugged probably 40oz of water within minutes. Physically, I felt exhausted but kind of like a badass. I mean, I was in a war with those green masses. Guys and gals, when I stepped back and took a good look at what was there all along, it was gorgeous. Paired with Micah mowing the lawn yesterday and us tidying up toys, etc. Beautiful. That's God. That's the hope right there in those rocks. They were there, I knew they were there, I went through blood (rose thorns, nasty buggers), sweat and ... not so many tears but I did accidentally crush a few crickets and snails, sorry guys .. some physical pain to reach that stunning result. Being able to find my way back to this beautiful view which, by the way, someone or a few someones put a great deal of effort into, was my guide. In that same way, God is always there. You struggle along the way, you lose hope here and there, honestly, and you may even give up. He's there. You'll manage to find your way home to Him, find His peace and His happiness. There's nothing quite like the provisions our perfect God has for us amidst any chaos.
 |
| I filled at least three wheelbarrows full of weeds that were masking the rocks |
For the past three days I made it my purpose to uncover what I once loved about our yard. At two hours on Friday and about four to six hours on Saturday and again Sunday, I am feeling the work in every muscle of my body. I started with the patio and a smaller set of rocks that are not shown in this image and worked my way from left to right on the shown rocks. When you spend that much time alone and in the ridiculously beating sun, your thoughts sort of prance around different ideas and let me say that God, NOT the heat, breathed some ideas into my head.
Now, I know many of you loathe weeding. I mean, you're basically tearing your knees apart on gravel, spiky, itchy grass and whatever slugs and beetles are lurking around. Sweat is tickling its way down your face which you inevitably wipe with your filthy, sweat soaked gardening gloves. Your fingers tearing away, sometimes accidentally pushing your finger nail back. Lovely. Oh and the bugs, they know exactly how to really buzz right around your ear or flutter in your face like it's their job. Not cool, bugs, not cool. THAT SAID, I am sort of a lover of weeding just as I am dishes. I'm a childcare provider so both of these activities scream elongated moments alone to zone out and be free of noise, stress ... diapers. Today, my third day of weeding, I started to complain a bit in my head. Why on earth would God create these devil plants? Some of them are relatively easy to pull but they are few and far between. The majority have outrageously thick and deep roots that are apparently grabbing the earth while I am pulling in all my glory, seriously, they're holding on for life. Some are so webbed together I swear that faeries in fact do exist and have created a massive net of viney weeds and spread them in and out of and through the hundreds of rock. WHY?! This is a non believer's dream! Perfect God, huh? Well, why did he create weeds?? Of course that leads me to ask myself why is He referred to as perfect, what does that mean exactly? I'll tell you what it doesn't mean! Perfect does not mean perky and pleasant 24/7. You know the story of Noah's Ark. In Genesis 6:5, "The Lord saw how great the wickedness of the human race had become on the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the time. The Lord regretted that he had made human beings on the earth, and his heart was deeply troubled. So the Lord said, 'I will wipe from the face of the earth the human race I have created - and with them the animals, the birds and the creatures that move along the ground - for I regret that I have made them.'" Of course you can't believe in my perfect God if you think perfect has something to do with pure joy all of the time. One look at that scripture and you can tell He was pissed. Super pissed. And He acted on his frustration in a severe way. If you ask me, He's a little more like you and I than we imagined. Perfect is defined in the dictionary as absolute. God exists independently.
God is perfect in that the hope he gives is everlasting.
THAT is our perfect God that you're always hearing about or referring too.
He makes tough decisions that we can't always explain or find reason for. Satan can lay out groundwork and we often feel like God has abandoned us in that bad things happen regardless of His presence. Road blocks are far too common in life. Even something as simple as bills. I seriously have this struggle each year where I feel like I've worked my butt off, saved up all of this money for a trip or something major and then our nasty Waste Management bill creeps up on me and really makes me get a little nutty.
Weeds, people.
We get smothered by them and I know YOU know what I'm talking about. You literally can't breathe with some of the terrible things that happen at times to you or a friend or just by flipping on the news. So how do we, WHY do we go on another day? Don't we see or at least hope for a silver lining?
I finished my work in the yard today. I felt disgusting and chugged probably 40oz of water within minutes. Physically, I felt exhausted but kind of like a badass. I mean, I was in a war with those green masses. Guys and gals, when I stepped back and took a good look at what was there all along, it was gorgeous. Paired with Micah mowing the lawn yesterday and us tidying up toys, etc. Beautiful. That's God. That's the hope right there in those rocks. They were there, I knew they were there, I went through blood (rose thorns, nasty buggers), sweat and ... not so many tears but I did accidentally crush a few crickets and snails, sorry guys .. some physical pain to reach that stunning result. Being able to find my way back to this beautiful view which, by the way, someone or a few someones put a great deal of effort into, was my guide. In that same way, God is always there. You struggle along the way, you lose hope here and there, honestly, and you may even give up. He's there. You'll manage to find your way home to Him, find His peace and His happiness. There's nothing quite like the provisions our perfect God has for us amidst any chaos.
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