What took five years. . .

Recently I mentioned that the circus is coming to town because we have termites.  Well, in preparation for the fumigation (yes, I'm aware of the rhyme), we have had to rip out a lot of our landscaping around the house to make room for that big, beautiful tent that is coming.

That wonderful, flowering vine on our front porch that framed out the the front of our house. . . gone.

The beautiful hydrangea in the corner flower bed that is bigger than my oldest son?  Slashed and trashed.

The three kinds of jasmine that sent a fragrant aroma wafting into our dinning room during meal time. . .  a fond memory.

Our six foot tall butterfly bushes no longer give refuge to those amazing winged creatures.

Even my wife's prized rose bushes on the back of the house which made the place seem like less of a tract house are now pruned back to stumps.

What took five years to grow and develop has been wiped out in three days.

I mention all this because it got me thinking.  How often in our lives does God spend years working on us, feeding us and delighting in the flowering of our growth, only to have random circumstances allow us to cut all that down?

As I look at my garden, it is depressing.  But I know in time that with care and hard work, the beauty that once was will be restored.  How much better to know that God will always be there to pay even more attention to our growth and beauty, to restore us, even when we slash and burn what he has created in us. Thank you Lord.

Peace and good health to all.