In this morning’s not-so-awake early hours, an idea for the blog post sprouted to mind. What I had planned to write yesterday I ditched for what felt brilliant today. Now fully awake, the connections are loose, the idea flimsy. Or is it?
And I will send hornets before you, which shall drive out the Hivites, the Canaanites, and the Hittites from before you. I will not drive them out from before you in one year, lest the land become desolate and the wild beasts multiply against you. Little by little I will drive them out from before you, until you have increased and possess the land.
Not all verses are meant for personal application, but possession of the land is a theme in this new house of ours, the taming of it an even larger focus for us these days.
Our big back yard needs some serious subduing. Yesterday, the girls dredged the pool of its rotten leaves (and a dead mouse) while Husband plucked loose branches from the lawn and rolled a construction clean-up magnet around the property. I yanked out weeds that felt more like saplings in spots, finally snipping a few at their bases when it was impossible to uproot them.
Eyes down, I worked tiny area by tiny area—the big picture too overwhelming—but in four hours, I had beaten back the wildness enough to see a small change. Little by little I will drive them out from before you...
As with blessings, I don’t know why possession of the land can’t happen all at once. My impatient self would love that. But mercy lives in the tolerable little by little. The everything at once—the good or the bad—wouldn't be healthy, and the proverbial wild beasts might multiply against me. I sure wouldn’t want that.
Light through the trees dapples the green expanse now, and I better get outside again in case the weather forecast keeps its word about the three o’clock rain.
My motivation runs strong today. More little by little is coming.
What Husband picked up in just half of the front yard.
Avid gardeners: is that rhubarb mixed in with the ferns and weeds? Or just another weed?