"The Pod Patrol"

 

“The Pod Patrol”

 

Part of my morning routine (along with “lollygaggin’”) is going on the “pod patrol”. We inherited a large southern magnolia tree when we bought our house which blooms beautifully but briefly from mid-spring through early summer. Once the flowers fade seed pods remain on the branches then fall to the ground in great abundance which necessitates the “pod patrol” to keep our lawn and street from becoming messy and hazardous. (I keep count for the fun or OCD of it and a couple of years ago the total was 4003!) Former neighbors told me they thought about getting one but when they saw me on my pick-up rounds they decided to enjoy ours! I’m glad we could be of service!

As I went about this daily task recently I thought about how it pictures our walk with Christ. In order to experience the blessings He wants to bring we have to pick up and dispose of life’s pods which can threaten our well-being in Him. I don’t know if there were southern magnolias or similar trees in ancient Israel but if there were King David may have had them in mind when he prayed, “Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.” (Psalm 139:23-24). (I pray this most mornings to keep my accounts up to date.) Just as the pods are small but can be very annoying and damaging so can the “little sins” in our lives, which is likely why David’s son Solomon wrote, “Catch for us the foxes, the little foxes that ruin the vineyards, our vineyards that are in bloom.” (Song of Songs 2:15) and the reason the author of Hebrews counseled his readers (and us) to “…throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.” (Hebrews 12:1).

Hummingbirds are the smallest known birds (there are 488 kinds of them, all native to the Western Hemisphere) which we admire and even attract to our yards. However, their small size belies their fierce temperament. Such is the nature of small sins—they can be attractive but make our lives ugly before God and those around us. A line in an old hymn by J. Edwin Orr based on the Psalm 139 prayer cited above says, “Cleanse me from every sin, and set me free.” May I ask this of God when I’m on “pod patrol”.

 

Grace and Blessings!

Jim McMillan