PASTORAL PONDERINGS - August 2010
Our first tomatoes have begun to ripen in the summer heat. I am looking forward to eating bright red fruits fresh from the garden, so much tastier than the pinkish-orange ones in grocery stores that were harvested green and ripened in trucks traveling across the country
Every year I learn something new from our garden. In past years we put up fencing around small patches of vegetables that we thought the animals would try to eat, but this year we enclosed the entire garden in two-foot chicken wire. What we have learned is that adult rabbits can jump that high and get in and out! The two bunnies that were born in the garden, however, were trapped inside. We had to do our best impersonations of Mr. And Mrs. McGregor (Remember them from the Tale of Peter Rabbit?) and chase those bunnies around the garden with our shovel. Eventually we chased one up a ramp and over the fence, and we caught the other by hand and lifted it out.
So what spiritual lesson is in all this? I suppose there is something about the illusion of finding safety and security in building walls to keep others out. Next year we could put up a three-foot fence, and that would surely keep out those rabbits. But it would also make the garden less inviting for us and deter us from working in it as often as we need to produce the best fruits.
Next year we'll probably stick with the two-foot fence and trust that the rabbits won't get everything. In the end safety and security are evidently found in trusting God to provide abundance enough for us to share, even with "pesky wabbits," to quote Elmer Fudd.