WILDLIFE

WILDLIFE

                When we moved to Tennessee, we purchased a house of 5.8 acres. The property is mostly wooded and steep, since we are on the side of a mountain. The only level land in fact is maybe a half acre around the house. The driveway is paved, but steep enough that you don’t want to stop halfway up. The delivery driver that delivered our washer and dryer took about a half hour to back up the driveway and it was only by determined effort that he made it to the top.

                But our property overlooks a serene valley through which the Clinch River runs and since it is dammed up some miles downstream from our place it is, for all practical purposes a lake. About an eighth of a mile from our house is a small park on the shore and a boat ramp and when we are finally settled, I plan to go down to the lake at the break of day with my dog Desi… launch my Kayak and go for a spin.

                Our property is full of wildlife and birds. Deer come down to the back yard from the woods above. A raccoon has made a second home out of our back porch where he has tipped over the cat food container on several occasions. Yesterday Bonnie saw a box turtle sitting in the driveway and she went out and put it back into the woods so that it wouldn’t get run over. Yesterday we also saw a black snake of about 3 ½ feet long just sun bathing in back of the house.

                Years ago when we lived in Johnson City               we saw a black snake about twice the size of this one. He used to hang out around the creek in our back yard. One day I heard a commotion in the trees across the creek and I looked up in time to see this large black snake falling from branch to branch for 60 or 70 feet and ending up with a thud on the ground. It just wasn’t his day, and in the process of climbing the tree to rob a bird’s next he had lost his “footing” (if such a thing can be said of a snake) and he was airborne except for hitting every branch on the way down. It was kind of comical, but I tried to show a bit of compassion for his troubles.

                There is no shortage of exotic bugs and beetles and colorful lizards with reddish heads, shiny black bodies with yellow stripes that fade into blue tails. They are really very pretty and they mean us no harm as they scurry about. But there is one creature that I don’t like and those are the carpenter bees. They like to dig a little round hole in any exposed wood on porches and decks. It looks harmless enough, but they go in and make a home for themselves by hollowing out the board on the inside.

                Someone on the internet shared that you can take a brown paper bag, stuff it with filler of some kind and hang it on the porch. To the carpenter bee it looks like a hornet’s nest (Their one natural enemy) and they stay away. So far this has worked pretty well. For the most part the carpenter bees are staying away, which is good because I had to keep a constant vigil with spray and a fly swatter. Between Bonnie and me we killed over two dozen of the little beasts and they were showing no signs of letting up.

                Another trick we learned from the internet was to take a putty knife and fill all of their little round holes with Petroleum Jelly so that the larvae will suffocate when they try to come out.

                For the most part we try to live at peace with the wildlife around our house, but I do draw the line when they are trying to eat my house.

                I wrote about these bees a week or so ago in an article called “Inroads.” But now we have found at least some partial solutions and so I thought I would pass them along.

                Of the 4000 and some people who read my articles I know that many of you live in every kind of climate that the world has to offer. I also know that a good many of you are living Christian lives in places where there is not freedom to do so. Many of you live in poverty and hardship that we here in America can hardly imagine. Some of you, being barely able to scrape up enough food for yourselves, are feeding a bunch of orphan children as well. There is a large underground church in Pakistan and I hear from many of you on a regular basis.  I hear often from India and Africa and the Middle East. There are also places in Africa such as Ghana, Somalia and Kenya… places where poverty and oppression rule the day.

                With whatever level of comfort that we might enjoy here in America, there is the ever abiding sense that this world is in trouble and many of the people to whom we write every day live in situations that would shock and sadden us. And to add to the discomfort the world’s weather has gone crazy in many places, with unprecedented heat, cold, floods, famines, earthquakes and volcanoes, diseases and such that are ravaging many places.

                When I was a youth our family made a visit to 13 countries in South America where we visited mission stations in both populated and remote places. We walked through villages where Christians lived in thatch roofed huts with dirt floors. We passed through whole cities where mile after mile, the homes were made of cardboard and tin and old car parts. We visited their churches where they came, bright faced and loving. Even in the squalor of abject poverty the love of Christ beamed from their washed faces.

                Here in America where we have everything we never tire of preaching about prosperity, we have lost touch of what true prosperity really is made of. It is not found in the stuff that we own. Prosperity is being a child of the King. Prosperity is being filled with His Holy Spirit. Prosperity is having a heart full of love in a hopeless world. Prosperity is in knowing Jesus Christ and knowing that at the end of it all we will dwell in a land that is fairer than day… where there is no more sin or sickness, sorrow or death. Prosperity is being transformed into the image of Christ so that when we meet Him we will be like Him for we shall see Him as He is.

                And even though we live in a certain amount of comfort here on the side of the mountain, I would trade it all for one moment with the King of kings. He is the source of all blessing and the hope of a dying world. He is the One who comes into our hearts and creates eternity inside of us. He breathes life into our fallen spirit making us His children forever. He adopts us into His royal family.

                In his sermon yesterday Mark Biltz taught us that there are three Hebrew words for the word “Blessing.” There is the general blessing, the personal blessing and the intensely personal blessing and Mark explained it like this: A general blessing would be where you go to an orphanage and you give everyone a cookie. A personal blessing is where one kid is too short and can’t reach the cookie jar and so you pick him up and help him to reach for the cookie. The third word for blessing is deeply personal and would correspond to adopting the short kid and taking him home with you to be your child.

                All three of these levels of blessing are included in the one blessing that Aaron gave to the children of Israel in Numbers 6:24-26. In fact, God told him through Moses exactly what to say and that is why this blessing is so important to us even to this day. Listen to their conversation:

                “Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ‘Speak to Aaron and to his sons, saying, “Thus you shall bless the sons of Israel. You shall say to them:”

                “The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make His face to shine upon you; the Lord be gracious unto you; the Lord lift up His countenance on you and give you peace.” Numbers 6:22-27

                God loves us with a kind of love that it is hard for us to imagine. In our efforts to please Him we sometimes forget that more than anything, He craves our friendship and fellowship. He wants to be a part of our lives not just in the rituals of religion, but in daily companionship.

                The constituents of a kingdom may come at certain times to pay honor to the King, but a son or a daughter can climb up into his lap and call him “Daddy.” We have been adopted and so even though we honor Him as our King and we are in training to live as royalty, we can also call Him our Father and snuggle up to Him and find our peace and security in His lap.

                Wherever you are in this vast world and whatever circumstances you find yourself in today, I pray that you will find your peace in Him. Shalom