A Natural Experience

The other day I woke up with little matter on my agenda. It's like a another world, living out here. Natures natural hum and harmony blending into the quiet. A quiet void of cars, trucks, and angry neighbors. The day before Ham had mowed the lawn. I don't know what it is about freshly cut grass, but that day it did wonders for my mood. I stood on our back deck and looked out at the 2 acres of land guarded by the surrounding woods, it was so peaceful, so beautiful! I thought "goodness, I want to do something to complement this scenery!" So I got a broom and started sweeping off all the decomposing leaves that had blown their way in between the cracks and spaces in the deck. I swept and swept, gathering leaves, small twigs, and spider webs till there was a huge pile on one side of the deck. Then with the end of the broom I shimmied the Mother Nature's leftovers between the wooden railings and off the side of the hill by our house. I was happy watching all the little leaves fall over the edge to the ground where they would turn back into dirt. Stepping back I surveyed my work. The deck was clean! I arranged the furniture and wiped off the table only to step back again and notice what my labor had accomplished. After all that I still wanted to do more. For who?
It wasn't enough to clean up and get rid of last years plant life that had accumulated on the deck, I wanted nature closer than all the way out in the field. I wanted nature to come, alight on my deck, and live closest to the house. SO, even though I am a poor poor student I left the house and came back with a trunk full of flowers and pots. By then I had decided that this was a gift for mom, who seldom gets gifts 'just because.'
Potting and placing those plants on the deck was absolutely the best work experience I've had all semester. I welcomed the sweat down my back and the dirt in my finger nails. I was proud of the ache in my thighs from standing and squatting repeatedly over those little pots. I didn't even get mad at Alexus for getting all dirty when I watered the flowers with the hose.
The hardest part of it all was realizing that what I had done was good, and then having to wait for mom to get home to see it. And then I knew, without a doubt that He was telling me something. How on earth am I going to raise $40,000 this summer? I asked Him repeatedly throughout the day. And there the answer was, in the work of my hands, in the hours devoted to my task, in the way I had given up my meager funds to make someone else happy.

"Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you."
Luke 6:38