11/11/08
There’s a church just down from us which has on their sign, ‘Leaves leave but Jesus doesn’t’. I take exception to that, actually I vehemently don’t agree with it. Not the part about Jesus not leaving but the part about leaves doing it. Leaves may fall of their own violation but they do not leave on their own, nor do they leave easily. Guess what Dave and I did today? If you said we raked leaves you would win the prize. We worked for around 3 solid hours in unison just to get those little bugger to the curb in order for the City to pick them up hence they don’t even cooperate in leaving when you gather them all together with an encouraging push and shove. I am ever thankful that the side yard of the church is at a slant which in my opinion made it a bit easier to get them to the curb. Dave and I even hit them with high tech and low tech apparatus, he had a blower and I had the rake. Last Sunday we had talked about needing to deal with the leaves leaving situation when Kathy Ruiz (don’t you just love that name change?) spoke up and declared that she like top rake, that it brought back memories. Well as most know in Texas where I grew up there was no need to rake so I have absolutely no memories, fond or not of leaf removal hence next year I’m going to hand Kath a rake with a bow on it and give her the magic gift of memories.
Isn’t it something how memories can cause an otherwise onerous job into a stroll down sweeter perhaps happier times? Of course it can do the opposite as well bringing up sad memories but then the pain of those memories is muted due to the fact that we are standing on this side of the removal looking back upon them. I think one of the greatest gifts that age brings is the ability to look back on many experiences in our lives and perhaps have the capacity to see the events in a broader perspective, not defined by the circumstances of then, but with greater understanding of the now and hence many seemingly bad times/void times are redeemed. I can look back over the years of my last illness and though there were times of merely enduring, making it through the days, with no seeming productivity, I can see now that I not only made it through them but that many of the writings I did were only made possible by the void of then, much of the knowledge I’m garnering now benefits from the pain of then. It’s not that my times have becoming sweeter or gentler but I have. I am learning (an ongoing process) not to judge myself so harshly for what seem to me to be times of ineffective wanderings and I am certainly much less apt to judge someone else who seem to be in a dry, time of non-productivity. Actually Abba through Ruach’s ever teaching grace showed me that what often appears as a time of fallowness here and now can be a time when one is actually laying up treasures in heaven, hence the fruits being laid up are not seen. Upon reflection I see that can often be the case when Ruach is working on one’s character, trying our patience, our faith, our hearts toward one another, the fruits of that aren’t seen on this side instantaneously but they are known in heaven.
For me, even the memories of the pain filled times remind me of His faithfulness in never allowing me to feel forsaken or forgotten. Truth be told in fact, there were often things which were nothing short of miraculous, signs, words, manifestations which kept me secure in Him. I may, at this point, vehemently disagree that leaves leave, but I have no doubt that He never does!
k
