A Wheelbarrow Vs. a Tractor...

...There's Really No Comparison!

A little windstorm blew in. The rain gauge registered over one inch of rain in just minutes, for which we were grateful. But the backyard fence was taken out when one-third of the maple that Dad had planted went down. Several decades ago, he received it from the Pawnee True Value in appreciation for using their material for his carpenter jobs.

On Monday, I began the cleanup in the front yard with a wheelbarrow and a rake. Working intermittently during the day, I hauled five wheelbarrows full to the brush pile. Other than large limbs that I could not move, that section was cleaned up so I could mow the lawn. Let’s just say as I told my leader at Weight Watchers, this was one of those days I didn’t need to work out! But I hadn't even touched the back yard.

Greg and Vonda Goad, our neighbors, had inquired at church on Sunday  about any damage we had. Then later that afternoon, they came over to survey the situation.

On Monday evening, they arrived with gloved hands and a chainsaw. What a

 big difference it made!

Little did I realize how much Greg and his tractor would do on Thursday. Since a picture is worth a thousand words, check out these:

 

As Vonda and I watched, I told her that my efforts with the wheelbarrow represented my own efforts in trying to do what is right or more succinctly, trying live as a follower of Jesus, in my own strength, when I deal with trials, difficulties, and the unknown.

Yet Greg and his tractor symbolizes the power of God that is available to us every moment of every day. If we have been forgiven by the power of Jesus’ blood, we have the very spirit of God living within us. He is ever-present with us. The verse in Psalm 138:8 states emphatically, “The Lord will perfect that which concerns me; Your mercy, O Lord, endures forever; Do not forsake the works of Your hands.”

The verse provides a certainty that God will perfect whatever is related to me. He will never give us what we deserve. That is what mercy is – not getting what really should be coming to us.

Those of us who have a restored relationship with our heavenly Father through Jesus are assured that the Lord of all creation desires to maintain a daily interaction with us. In His omnipotence, He will intervene on our behalf, just as Greg moved the enormous downed limbs.

Greg used about three moves to gather each load to move out of the backyard. I told Vonda how much that mirrors God’s work in our lives. We pray,  but we don’t see the results we have requested. Yet how often, God is working on our behalf to perfect what concerns us, but we don’t see what He is accomplishing because we are so focused on the result we so desperately want.

I pray to be able to recall Greg and the tractor as they moved slowly to collect the debris from the yard, not just once, not just twice, but several times to get the broken limbs onto the front-end loader. Our strong God is at work. As we daily read His word, may we reaffirm our trust in His work in our lives, thanking Him, and restating our love and commitment to Him. 

My father, Edmund Gates, Jr., would say upon reading this post, "Money can't buy good neighbors."

(I've said this on numerous times to many of our neighbors in the Bend.)