Saturday, September 8, 2012

Beneath the Surface

Do not look at the surface of things. To quote:
In the eyes of the casual observer and nearest neighbor, chaos and disorder seem to reign supreme. After all, there are way too many children for any family to manage and the house is just too small. The yard is messy, the grass is desperately in need of mowing and the weeds have begun to fill in all the edges and empty spaces. In the center of the yard is a large sandbox, unused, the remnants of a few broken toys remain nestled between the dandelions and the ant hill.

The large garden plot is the one glory of the property, surrounded by walls of corn…it is lush and verdant as a tropical rainforest, giving up its harvest in grateful appreciation for the care and nurturance it has received throughout the season. But…the flowers that surround the porch, so very beautiful in the early part of spring, are looking worse for wear; coleus and begonias have been trampled by the many barn cats that prowl the property.

On the front porch, there is a can filled with cigarette butts and the smell of tobacco hangs heavy in the air while the porch light still burns from the night before. In the past few weeks there have three police cars and an ambulance…surely that means something? Then there are the cars, two of them in varying states of disrepair, one missing its battery, the other an old Mercedes wagon, many years past its prime.

“Ah,” opines the observer/neighbor, “this family is a scandal. There is something seriously amiss here…just look at the state of things! I think perhaps I’ll leave a Christian tract in the mail to gently show them the error of their ways. After all, it is the charitable thing to do…”

Yet…if the neighbor were to look a little more closely, or perhaps gently inquire, the picture might alter considerably…(Read entire post.)
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