The fall is real, and I don’t mean the season….

These photos represent a small portion of the last hours, days, weeks and months it’s taken me to just reclaim the grounds of the house we’re living in (and I still have more ground to cover).

I say the fall (of man) is real because it is. When God said to the serpent, “and I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel”(Gen 3:15) He wasn’t kidding. I let the black snakes go, but I killed the poisonous brown ones. Struck his head with a shovel.

Then when God said to Adam, “Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat from it all the days of your life. It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food.” (Gen 3:17b-19) Well, I’m not planning on eating anything I just worked on, but by the blood, sweat , tears and a bit of poison ivy, of my brow, I got this section of the yard finished.

I say all that to say this….
The fall is real.
I spent a ton of time in the yard, trying to make head or tails of why people use pine straw as a garden ground cover. I spent a ton of time in the yard, sweating to find dirt. I spent a ton of time in the yard digging up plants, trees, weeds and bushes. I spent a ton of time in the yard thinking.
Thinking about what God said to the serpent, to Eve, to Adam and to me.

The fall is real, there’s no doubt. We all have gardens that need work and through our blood, sweat, tears, and hopefully no poison ivy, we see the fruits of our hard labor. IT’S MESSY!! You get dirty, you get scratched, you even want to cry…but in that fall is a promise. There’s a cheerleader, there’s a voice inside that says “KEEP GOING, YOU’VE ALMOST GOT THIS!!! YOU’RE ALMOST DONE!!!”

I can’t tell you how many times I wanted to quit today, but I KNEW…if I don’t do it now I’ll have to do it tomorrow. But then the sweet voice came and said “You can do it!” That’s what kept me going. That’s what helped me plow through the 7 hours of digging and raking in the heat, that’s what saw me through to the end. That sweet cheerleader, Jesus.

I cried when I finished that section. I cried from the exhaustion, I cried from the cuts and scrapes, I cried from the joy of knowing I just kicked my front yard’s butt, and I cried from the goodness of my cheerleader, Jesus. The fall is real, but so is Jesus! So is His sweetness and desire to see us unburdened by that curse in Genesis. That is why He came. I’m not saying it’s not going to be hot, I’m not saying it’s not going to be messy, but I am saying we have an amazing cheerleader who wants to partner with us in our toil and sweat and see us to victory.