The thought of raking those leaves each fall almost offset the joy that football brings this time of year. The only consolation I had was driving by one particular home in a nearby neighborhood, and thinking, “Man, I’m glad I don’t live there.” That property had twice as many leaves. Well, I kid you not. Years later, that property became the home for my wife and me and our six children for twenty-five years!

Now I get to relax. NOT! Our home on the lake is full of oak, maple and walnut trees. We also have five acres of woods where we have cleared out a mile or so of walking trails with  scripture signs placed throughout. (Feel free to come and walk them anytime). For years, we would haul the yard leaves into the woods, and simply blow the trails clean. Not anymore… this past summer, we cleared the woods of all the leaves and mulched most of it for our daughter’s wedding reception  and related parties. The trails and woods really did look great but there is a downside. Now, we have to arrange for all  the leaves- yard, woods and trails- to be burned or hauled off. It can be a pretty time consuming endeavor.

Said all that just to say this… I am looking out a window now and trying to compare my puny leaf moving efforts to several hard gusts of God’s wind. I consider myself to be a pretty good leaf mover, a fact when coupled with $3.00 will buy me one gallon of gas! However, with one hard breath, God can move more leaves than I could for days. Hmmm…

As we all move forward with SMLCA, please remember that at those times the task seems daunting, God can step in and with one simple breath, change the landscape completely.