PASTOR DAVE’S MUSINGS FROM THE HEARTLAND

November 17, 2024

NATURAL AERATION

Thursday, November 7, I collected five bags of leaves from my yard.  It would have been much easier to rack the leaves and move them to the curb for the city to pick-up.  Unfortunately, if left in piles, the leaves have a tendency to move with the wind and sometime in the future I will have to address them again.  Once in a bag, a leaf is out site and out of mind.  In addition, last year the city was tardy in picking-up the leaves on my street which meant the grass underneath them was affected.

As I was picking up the leaves I would have to stop periodically, to replace tuffs of grass.  There were places squirrels had dug divots to bury nuts.  For many years I paid a company to aerate and over seed my lawn.  I finally came to the conclusion that the squirrels were accomplishing the first part of this operation with the burying of their nuts.  A little work on my part took care of the second part.

Generally, every fall I just remove the leaves from the lawn and paved areas of my yard.  I leave the rest to provide a protection for the perennials, biennials, and seeds as a natural mulch against the ravages of winter.  As they decay, they naturally provide nutrients.  I also add some leaves to a composter I have.  In nature decaying leaves are a backbone of building up the soil.

My world is filled with ants.  They come in all shapes and sizes and are for the most part unseen.  Proverbs suggests that I might find it wise to spend some time considering their behavior.  “Go to the ant, you sluggard; consider its ways be wise!  It has no commander, no overseer or ruler, yet it stores its provisions in summer and gathers its food at harvest (Proverbs 6:6-8).”  The Bible describes ants as being hard working and industrious who reap rick rewards from their labors.  We are encouraged to go and do likewise.

In Gensis we read: “God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.  God blessed them and said to them, ‘Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it.   Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature (ants) that move on the ground.’ Then God said, ‘I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seeds in it.  They will be yours for food.  And to all the beasts of the earth and all the birds in the sky and all the creatures (ants) that move along the ground – everything that has the breath of life in it – I give every plant for food.’  And it was so (Genesis 1:28-30).”

God created humankind to be stewards of the world that God had created.  A part of this stewardship involves learning the lessons God’s creation, including its creatures, have to offer.  Nature naturally aerates the ground, sees that the soil is enriched and watered.  One of the reasons that mankind every spring spread a variety of chemicals on the ground is because they have not followed God’s plan for the care of the ground.  When I buy bananas there are some with a lower price and others that are labeled as being organic.  Those with organic label are identified as following more closely God’s way of growing crops.

There is much that God’s creation and those who inhabit it have to teach us.  We just need to have the eyes to see, and the ears to hear.

(Comments may be sent to davidh15503@embarqmail.com.)