Fire, Friend and Other Stuff

Fire, Friend and Other Stuff

Welcome to Christianity Oasis. This is Fire, Friend and Other Stuff from our Sojourn With Luz Leigh Collection. We hope you enjoy this enlightening reading and it helps you on your own be-YOU-tiful Christian walk.

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Sojourn With Luz Leigh

Fire, Friend and Other Stuff

Written by Luz Leigh - 06 October 2008

There she is. I know not her age; many years past retirement, but still working ... staying in touch with nature. The old woman works so tirelessly, day after day. The recent hurricane has made her outdoor work even greater. As I sit here watching, I think of her ancestors who came to this part of Texas over one hundred fifty-eight years ago. They worked hard taming this land on which she and her family now reside; cutting trees for houses and barns; clearing a few acres on which to build the house and plant their crops. She would have fit right in with them.

Each day, weather permitting, the woman is outside tending to her land. As soon as her sons have left the property to go to their jobs, she takes her clippers, her rake and other assorted tools, and begins her work. Her sons use the tractors and other equipment to do the heavy work, but she takes it upon herself to trim the hedges, cut low hanging branches from the many trees that surround her home and carry all these to the "burning pile." Her family has provided her with a little cart that she pulls around, loading the branches on it so she does not have to make as many trips to the "pile."

Her daily prayers have begun. Although I cannot hear her voice, I see her lips moving. Once, in my ignorance, I asked her, in a joking manner, if she were talking to herself. She said, "No, I am in conversation with my Lord. I pray aloud so as to not let my mind wander while I make my prayers of thanksgiving and my requests made known to Him." And then she smiled that infectious smile ... "When you talk to a friend, do you not speak audibly? Just as Abraham was called a friend of God, I feel I, too, am a friend of God and He of me." I could not help but ask, "How do you know Abraham was God's friend?" "Read the Book of James, second chapter," she patiently told me.

The old woman is not a person of many words, but when she speaks, one does well to listen. She is not a social person; keeping to herself for the most part. The day I inquired about her conversation with the Lord, she never stopped her work, but allowed me to walk around with her and listen as she shared a few musings with me.

As she lit a fire under the limbs on the burning pile, she told me to watch as the sap from the recently cut limbs would begin to seep out of the end of those branches. She likened this to our lives. "How so?" I asked. She began to tell me things I had never considered before.

"As humans we have sin in our lives, even we who are Christians. Many times the Lord must 'trim our limbs, so to speak'. We are taken through 'the fire' which is actually the Holy Spirit dealing with us. He will cause the sap, what we call sin, to be drawn from our lives ... it will drip out because we cannot stand the heat from the Holy Spirit. We cry out to the Lord for forgiveness, and He is faithful and just to forgive. In 1 John 1:9 we are told 'If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.' We must allow the Holy Spirit to work in our lives for our own good."

I sit here up the road from where the old woman continues her work, watching her faithfulness to the care of her property. Her sons could do the work, or the family could hire someone to do it, but she feels this is the task the Lord has set before her. She will not be slack in the performance thereof. It is now 10:00 a.m. Time for her to take a break. With a cup of tea in hand, her beloved cat following close behind her, she makes her way to the yard swing. She will bow her head in prayer for a minute, thanking Him for his watch care this morning and for the refreshing cup of tea. Now she is free to enjoy nature; watching the squirrels as they run about the yard, only a few feet from her. They have no fear because they know she is their friend. There are birds of all sorts partaking of the feed she has put out for them, from the doves to the mocking birds to the little wrens ... they, too, feel no threat from the old woman. She is a friend to them as well.

I have vowed to study the Word of the Lord more so that I, too, will see lessons from Him in my daily life. Who knows? One day I might be given the privilege to share His Word with a neighbor.

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