When we remove the things that don’t matter, we can sometimes be stunned by the view.
There’s a window in the office I work in. It’s a rather large window. Until this week, it had a very large Japanese maple tree growing in front of it that almost completely covered it. I love Japanese maple trees. They are beautiful, ornamental trees. But, this particular one had grown so big that it totally blocked the window. We couldn’t see out.
Our principal put in a work order to have it trimmed. A few weeks passed and no one showed up.
Last Saturday, he brought his son and his own trimmers and trimmed the tree.
I can’t tell you the difference the trimming has made to those of us who work in the office and use the copier, which happens to be under the window, a hundred times a day. Every time we make a copy, we can now see the yellow cone flowers blooming beside the building and the gourds that are climbing the fence. We can see the sunshine and the clouds. We are now able to appreciate all of the landscape.
Almost everyone who has used that copier has commented on the view.
It’s amazing what a huge difference a couple of people could make when they rolled up their sleeves and got to work.
I have thought about that tree trimming all week. I have thought about how removing the overgrowth in our lives can have such a huge impact on the world we see around us. I have thought about how much beauty we miss by allowing our lives to become so overgrown.
I was reminded that overgrowth happens over time. I’m sure that tree took years to get that big. The problem with overgrowth in our own lives, is that it’s often so gradual that we don’t realize it.
When did we get too busy to have lunch with a friend? When did we get too busy to sit down to a family dinner? When did we get too busy to sit out on the porch or to take a walk? When did we get too busy to read a book? When did we get too busy to pray or read the Bible? When did the people in cyberspace become more important than the people who are standing in front of us?
The great thing about overgrowth, is it can be trimmed away and we can be left with a beautiful new view that we didn’t even know we had.
We can simply wait for something to happen to clear it, or we can pick up some trimmers and do it ourselves. Personally, I can’t imagine why we would want to wait.
My principal and his son, reminded me that clearing away the overgrowth and making changes, is a choice that can have beautiful results. Perhaps you needed reminding too.
Have an awesome day!
Wendy 🙂