Clearing Away the Underbrush

Sometimes Creation takes my breath away.

My parents have a pond behind their house. I think it’s been there longer than the house has. My maternal grandmother was an avid fisherman and the pond was her baby. My siblings and I spent a fair amount of time there as kids. My brother actually did a lot of fishing there. But, over time, we grew up and moved out. Daddy was still working full-time and the pond had become very overgrown.

I tried to take my own kids fishing there over spring break a couple of years back and they couldn’t fish at all from the bank. They had to go out in the boat which is at least as old as I am, so that in itself, was a risky proposition.

But, recently, Daddy retired. He and Mama decided that they would like to enjoy the pond. They had someone come and clear the underbrush and they installed a dock. Now, they go down there almost everyday and bask in the creation that God has blessed them with. Daddy has also been doing a lot of fishing, so much so that he took my son for the first time in October.

They had quite a bountiful catch.

A thirteen-year-old boy, fishing with his granddaddy, is a memory that’s hard to beat. My son will treasure that day for the rest of his life. I’m so thankful when my children have those kinds of experiences.

But, the pond is not new. It’s been there for close to fifty years now. What has changed? They cleared out the underbrush and made it a priority. My parents took something that had been neglected and overgrown over time and cleared off the scrub trees, and removed weeds taking it over from one end. They removed the obstacles that kept them from enjoying it.

Then they added a place, a dock, where they could sit and enjoy it and they are making enjoying it a priority.

How many things do we have in our lives like that pond? How many gifts have we been given that we have neglected because we are too busy? They can be physical things like our yards, or a pond or a porch or even a sunny room in our homes. They can also be pets that we could spend time walking. They can be friendships that we have let go. They can be marital relationships that we have taken for granted or a bicycle sitting and gathering dust in the garage.

We all have things and people in our lives that we tend to take for granted when life gets busy and hectic. We allow underbrush to grow up around things and people who should be a priority. We allow underbrush to grow up around our relationship with God too. That’s our nature. But, when I think about that pond and the total transformation that took place from clearing out underbrush and just adding a space to sit, I am reminded that we never have to look very far to see beauty and blessings.

Maybe it’s a good idea for us all to look around and see what needs clearing out and figure out a way  to clear it and then create a space to sit and enjoy it. Who knows what memories we can make by doing so?

How are you doing with life’s underbrush? Feel free to share.

Have an awesome day!

Wendy 🙂