Redemption!

 My backyard is a bit of a mess, even though I call it my own personal Eden.  I am not much on maintaining a neat garden, as I enjoy living in a more natural forest-like atmosphere.  And I love looking out the window at the surrounding trees with lush undergrowth, especially when the sun shoots long rays through the branches and leaves.

The downside of encouraging all this rich undergrowth is that it also encourages thorny vines and the proliferation of weeds.  At least once a year, I have to put on my boots and wade through the forest-like vegetation to ferret out unwanted plants that have taken advantage of my benign lack of attention.  Last year, for a number of reasons, I somehow never worked my way around to the backyard, so nature took over, as it is wont to do. 

A few days ago, I realized that things had gotten out of control, so I put on my boots and made my way to the farthest corners of the yard, where the larger plants had been completely covered by a beautiful but deadly vine.  When I first moved to this property, a neighbor brought me a seed for this vine, asking if I wanted it.  I looked at the large, heart-shaped leaves and thought it quite beautiful, so I planted it, little realizing what a bully it would turn out to be.  

In the years since, I have noticed this vine growing on vacant lots in the neighborhood, entirely blanketing 40-foot trees.  Like kudzu, this plant covers and smothers everything in its path, and keeps on going.  One year, it had completely stripped a large pineapple guava bush of all its leaves before I realized what was happening.  And since I did not pay attention last year, the vine had once again covered the larger plants along my fence.  Once planted, it becomes almost impossible to eradicate.

As soon as the weather turned cool this year, I determined to attack this vine, along with the thorny weeds that encircle and choke out the lower vegetation.  As I worked my way along the path, I couldn't help but remember my childhood stories of Anderson's Fairy Tales, where the hero made his way through deep forests choked with thorny vines to rescue the trapped princess in the castle.  Thorns caught at my ankles, while mosquitoes attacked my arms and neck.  All the while, I was on the watch for snakes in the deep underbrush.  But I was determined to rescue my beautiful plants, so long neglected.  

Several hours later, with the pile of heart-shaped vines at my feet, I looked with satisfaction at the beauty of the pineapple guava, the pittosporum, and the nandina that could finally breathe, free from smothering leaves and choking vines.  I smiled to myself and kind of blessed them, saying, "Grow! Be who you were meant to be! Be beautiful!"  And the word "Redemption" went through my mind.

Exactly what God has done, is doing, for us -- putting on His boots, so to speak, making His way through the thorns, snakes, and mosquitos of our lives to finally reach out and destroy our enemies.  Pulling away the vines that choke us, deprive us of our own beauty, saying to us, "Grow, be perfect, be who I created you to be! I am your caretaker, your husbandman, your shepherd.  You are free!"