Memorial Day 2005!

It's almost noon and I'm still in my robe. This is a good thing! It means, for the most part, I'm very relaxed. I've got that 2nd or 3rd cup of coffee sitting next to me and the day is shaping up outside my window quite nicely. Really early morning is my favorite time of the day, when the world is asleep and there are few, if any, sounds emanating from our neighborhood. The entire backyard is fenced(redwood six feet high)and that helps to block a lot of the regular noises and the wayward animals. It's not unusual to see deer in the back, they go over the fence as if it weren't even there. I've got a pair of wood ducks living in the hollow tree next to the patio. This is their third year here. What a hoot they are! They come in full bore, skimming the treetops and angling between the surrounding branches, braking at the very last possible moment to stop on the edge of their doorway, and then step inside. Last year mama raised five little wood ducks in the back yard! Their chosen habitat is one picked for safety. Like the fence around my yard, it is there for safety. And that wall pictured below was built a very long time ago for the sake of safety. To keep someone or something, at an acceptable distance. The "Great Wall of China" is in disrepair. One of the "Wonders of the World," but no longer necessary. One cannot "keep" the world out. Never could! We might delay it a bit, forestalling the eventual encroachment it makes, but the world will not stop at our borders, at the "great" walls, or even my fences. The world will eventually find a way to get in.
We build defenses within the confines of our lives also, to keep the world at bay, but, inevitably, an unguarded entrance is found. The "crack" in the wall, a "board" which should have been nailed back in place last year, that unseen "hidden" place in the heart that has been protected so carefully for so long is breached by a feeling, an emotion, a forgotten sentiment, and there we are
in the midst of a full scale attack on what we believed in our hearts was "safe" space! Life affords us no truly "safe" space, other than that which we can choose to share with God. That space will not crumble with age, get loose boards in it, or leave us unprotected. It is the "Secret Garden" of our lives into which, when invited, God enters in to become for us the defender against whom even the most formidable of foes will find the fortifications unscaleable. Looking for a bit of peace, a place of safety? He's available 24\7, for each of us! Check out whatever or whoever you got guardin' your garden, and get back to me! In Christ's Love, Preacher.