It's finally warm enough to really get the garden going. I went out this morning to do a little weeding, deal with the potatoes, transplant the tomato plants, and do some watering. The pets like to come with me - the cats sniff around to see if any rodents have intruded, and the dog wanders the yard, looking for rabbit droppings (yes, it's gross, but that's what she's doing).
Today, the cats got really interested in something at the same time. I wasn't paying much attention, but as they crept towards each other from opposite sides of the garden, I saw what they were watching. A young robin was fluttering on the ground. I'm not sure if it could fly or not, as it was right up against the fence. I walked over to pick it up and get it out of the garden, because my cats are killers!
As I picked up the robin, it started to squawk...and then the parents started. They squawked, they swooped, they were MIGHTY upset. I gently tossed the bird out of the garden and it fluttered under a tree. The parents didn't give up immediately - they let me know what they thought of me picking up their baby.
As I chuckled at them and told them I was SAVING their baby from certain destruction, it occurred to me that I act like those robin parents. My kids go through trials and troubles - sometimes due to their own choices, other times because of what others have done - and I squawk and I rant and I rail against God for allowing such a thing to happen.
Maybe, just maybe, God is rescuing my children from certain destruction, and the "trials" and "troubles" that my kids go through are just part of the rescuing process. A process that can seem hard and mean and devastating, but that is infinitely better than what they were headed for - certain destruction.
"'For I know the plans I have for you,' says the Lord, 'plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future.'" Jeremiah 29:11
"For the thief comes only to steal, kill, and destroy..." John 10:10
