Earlier this week as I pulled into our driveway, a nice Hispanic man approached me and gave me his card. He said he needed work, gardening, pruning, etc . and that he even "does windows". So when hubby came home I passed the card and info on to him.
Later on while sitting on our balcony with our glass of wine (for purely medicinal reasons), hubby with his stogy (because he looks really cool and pensive), we noticed the nice Hispanic man was loading up his truck next door. So he went down and talked to him about pulling out all of the ugly lopped off arborvitae trees that line the back yard. We had discussed early on how ugly the trees were, and how a fence would be much nicer. But.....once he hired the guy he realized that besides paying him for his work, he would need to buy materials for the fence, and he tried to cancel. He called, and they had a nice chat wherein dear hubby tried to make it clear that we just don't have the extra funds to hire him at this time. Evidently, he didn't understand because he showed up the next day and began pulling out the trees....in the pouring rain. Wow, what a hard worker! And what are we gonna do now? Oh well.
Anyway, the trees are gone and while it looks really nice without them, we are exposed! I am thankful that our neighbors live "below" us (in case you haven't heard, we are a "city on a hill", and I am the Queen of Medford) but still.....it feels so different, so "bare". Oh well. We are exposed. Deal with it.
It makes me laugh because God continues to expose me daily. He requires me to live totally transparent and completely exposed, my life is an open book. He is teaching me that He is my Defender, and also my Safety. The trees seem to be a physical example of how I have felt in this process. And you know the funny thing? The neighbor gal was talking to Sean (what a funny name for a Hispanic gardener) while he was finishing up, and I saw her out there (because I can see everything now that the trees are gone) and I waved from my sliding doors in the hallway (because now she can also see me), and opened the doors because she was talking. She was saying how nice it is with the trees removed, how she will be able to see my lilac hedge now and it is so pretty in full bloom.
And I thought, "Wow, what a picture of us, a physical example of how God desires us to live."
Because others can only see our true beauty when we are transparent and exposed......
Oh my, Holly, you sure can express yourself well, and in the expressing and revealing of yourself, help us see ourselves, as well. What a relief to know that feeling like I'm on the outside looking in at everyone else, is really an illusion, and although I AM on the outside, that's exactly where almost everyone else is, too! So then the outside is really where I want to be any way, right there with with everyone else, people like you, who I truly love to be with!
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