Shade Tree Wisdom 3/20/08

The first day of Spring, and when I came back from my early morning walk I saw something on the front porch that took me back to days when we were busy milking cows in the barn in Wisconsin. There was the neighbor’s cat playing with a mouse! The farm’s best mouser did that now and then. He would stroll in after a night spent decimating the mouse population under the corn crib with a live mouse dangling in his mouth. He’d put it down and play with it, it would run here, he’d stick out a paw and turn it back, and that went on till he would finally tire of it and quickly dispatch the little critter.

Anyway, here is the cat playing with the mouse, When the cat saw me come, he went one way, the mouse the other way, and that was the end of the play. First time I ever saw a mouse here. Snakes, yes, raccoons, yes, possums, deer, but never a mouse.

The paper this morning tells me Montgomery County is adding $50,000.00 to its budget for fighting the dreaded hydrilla in Lake Conroe. The best way to fight this invasive weed is with hydrilla-eating fish, and to stock these costs money. These fish thrive on hydrilla and have been found to be effective in fighting it. But let that weed grow and the Lake would soon be dead, for this weed is so invasive it simply kills all oxygen and so fish and finally, the water.

Hydrilla is like sin. It too is invasive, and we need to fight it. And the on way we have is our Lord Jesus Christ, who fought the devil for us and defeated him. So Luther was right when he wrote in the Battle Hymn of the Reformation, “He’s judged, the deed is done, one little word can fell him.”

Maundy Thursday we celebrate especially the Holy Supper, where our Lord offers us, again, His body and his blood, “for the forgiveness of sins”.

What a rich gift this is, and what a comforting remembrance, to celebrate, and to partake of this food, and go again, knowing our sins are indeed forgiven, and, as the prophet writes, drowned “in the depths of the sea”.

I trust and pray your week will be a time of spiritual growth and strength. Draw that from the Scripture, and from the faith that is fed through those words.

GPD 3/20/08