"Clean-up......................."

“Spring is here, the grass has riz; I wonder where the birdies is?”… Who authored that one is beyond me, a phrase heard in childhood years that resurfaces annually in my brain. Keeping up with the lawn’s need to be mowed has been turned over to my grandsons, not so much that I couldn’t use the exercise, but more so that they need the wages. The house is quite another matter, however, Beth working herself much too hard last week going room to room battling that thin, minute film of grime that accumulates over winter. Saturday she assigned me some new blinds to hang in this “den” where the computer sits. Then, cleaning out the large storage closet by the front entrance also fell to this old man. Toward evening, with some rain clouds slowly gathering overhead, the two of us weeded the area under the magnolia tree in the front yard, setting out a few phlox plants in hope that they will spread. Life in one’s little corner of the world is not all that complicated. You sweep out a few cobwebs, tend our own garden, and then sit down with a good book before going to bed around eleven. It’s the bigger picture, the task of sharing this planet with humanity at large that brings chaos and confusion into Eden… Arising early this morning and with a few hours to myself before church, I sat down in the recliner and reached for my Bible. When it fell open to some notes penned in it long ago on some verses in Romans, Chapter Two, “breakfast was served”, my mind digesting once again something believed way back there. Paul, in trying to explain to the Jews God having “no respect of persons”, speaks of that which all of us will one day give answer for in the end: (a) how well the Creator’s rules were written upon our heart; (b) how well we listened to our own conscience in our stagger down the road; and (c) how well we adjusted our thinking and gave grace to one another. Too often, within the Church, it seems to me that we lock salvation into our own determined definition of the Word and forget He, not we, has the final say. My job is only to point you to Him, take care of my own mess, and extend to you help if needed…..