Shade Tree Wisdom 10/29/13

          Warm again today. Always something. A neighbor asks for a tree trimmer because she had a tree on her house from that storm. Meanwhile, I had a person seal my dry deck. He claimed it was so in need he could just hear the boards slurp the material. Well, it’s done for the next five years or so. Looks fine.

          A news report speaks about the problem Australian farmers have with wild dogs killing sheep. Across western Australia the loss is estimated last year at 42,000 stock, mostly sheep. Since Australia is one of the largest producers of fine wool, that loss affects everybody, not just one farmer in the outback. One solution to wild dogs is donkeys. Farmers are adding donkeys to their flocks, and once they are bonded with the flock, farmers report no loss at all to dogs, because donkeys have an innate hatred for canines. One section of western Australia is offering bounties for dogs, but it seems the donkeys offer a better solution.

          All that interested me since we are nearing the Reformation. Because, in one sense, we are under attack all the time too. But the Reformation reminds us that we have a solution. One that is absolutely perfect, it works, because our God provided it for us. It is the Cross. It is the Lamb of God, Jesus Christ, whose death on the cross marked our sins “paid in full”. As St. Paul writes in Colossians 1,20, “Having made peace through the blood of His cross”. “At the right time, while we were still helpless, Christ died for the ungodly. . . But God shows how he loves us by this, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Romans 5, 6.

           Dr. Martin Luther expressed it so well in the Hymn. “Though devils all the world should fill, All eager to devour us. We tremble not, we fear no ill, They shall not overpower us. This worlds’ prince may still Scowl fierce as he will, He can harm us none, He’s judged, the deed is done, One little word can fell him”. LSB 565,3

          Dangers abound, but remember always that our Lord promised “I will be with you always, even to the end of the world”. So live in faith and trust with His attending blessing.

GPD 10/29/13