Honeysuckle

 

When I was in 7^th grade, I began working for an old lady in Glenville, Maryland.  Miss Vogel owned Westwood Manor, a fifty-acre sprawling property with a five-story stone mansion built in 1770 by one of the Maryland signers of the Declaration of Independence for his daughter.  The mansion was surrounded by seven acres of grass, beautiful trees, and flower gardens.  A formal boxwood garden with a Koi pond was in the front.  She had a paved drive from the road to the mansion bordered on each side by a low stone wall covered in honeysuckle.  In the spring, the drive was beautiful and fragrant, but the rest of the year, it was a challenge to maintain.  The honeysuckle entwined trees choking them while smothering boxwoods and overpowering dogwoods.  I could almost see the vines growing.  I had to trim back the honeysuckle on the stone wall every three weeks, and the drive was over a half mile long!  A neighboring farmer, Mr. Briney, helped me occasionally and lobbied Miss Vogel to exterminate the honeysuckle, but she wouldn’t hear of it.  She stubbornly had me fight the honeysuckle all year just to enjoy it for two weeks in the spring.  I worked for her 40 hours a week in the summer and spent much of my time cutting back her honeysuckle.  Hey, Mrs. Vogel’s honeysuckle reminds me of pet sins that we harbor.  Sins that relentlessly take over our lives.  We rationalize that they aren’t all that bad, but any sin is an affront to a Holy God.  James said in James 1:15, “Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death.”  Hey, don’t let sin take over your life.  Root it out and get rid of it.  Like honeysuckle, sin is pleasurable for a brief season, but it is ultimately painful and destructive.  Let the Holy Spirit rid you of pet sins.  You’ll be glad that you did.

Tape Residue

 

We have a little rental house at church, and I replaced a glass pane in a window a month ago.  I didn’t have any glazing points, but I thought that the glazing compound would hold just fine.  Well, it didn’t, and the glass sagged out.  The renters tried some sort of medical tape to hold the pane in place, but it didn’t work either.  The glass eventually fell out, and yesterday, I noticed that they had inserted a cardboard filler.  I investigated and found the glass on the ground with glazing compound and tape aplenty.  I brought it home and scrapped the glazing compound off.  I pulled the tape off and cleaned the glass with a paper towel and water.  I tried alcohol to remove the tape residue, but that didn’t work.  I tried paint thinner, but that didn’t work.  I tried acetone, which usually works with everything, but even acetone didn’t work.  It was then that I noticed that the tape residue was on the other side of the glass.  Silly me.  On the wrong side of the glass, nothing would have worked.  I turned the glass over and easily removed the tape residue.  Hey, sometimes in life, our work seems to no avail.  We get frustrated and can’t seem to get any traction.  Often it is good to step back and examine the situation before too much energy is wasted.  That’s what I should have done with my glass pane.  Hey, a new year starts this Sunday.  Why not try to make the best of it by taking a fresh look at your efforts?  Jesus said in Matthew 11:28-30, “Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”  If you do things God’s way, the work is much easier.  After all, God knows what is best, and God knows what is around the next corner.  Why not let God order your steps.  Don’t be like me: don’t keep rubbing on the wrong side of the glass.  Let the dear Lord help you in 2023.  You’ll be glad that you did.

Reality

 

Just imagine twins in their mother’s womb talking to each other (I did say imagine).  The twin girl says to her twin brother, “There must be more to life than this.”  But the boy retorts, “No, this is reality.  We are warm and comfortable and don’t have any worries in the world.  We just take our nourishment from this cord and enjoy the coziness.”  So, the girl says, “But this occasional squeezing makes me uncomfortable.  What if there is more to life?  A world out there just waiting to be explored?”  The boy replies, “Don’t be silly, this is reality right here and now.”  The girl responds, “But what if someday something traumatic happens and we are propelled into a big, new world and we see the face of our mother?!”  “Don’t be ridiculous!” the boy says, “This is all there is!”  Hey, someday, we will see the face of our Creator, and we will experience firsthand the joys of an extremely wonderful place called heaven.  Paul said in I Corinthians 2:9, “… Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.”  The twin girl is right, and it is going to be fantastic when we see heaven firsthand and look into the face of our Maker!