Crooked Fences

Crooked Fences

 

 

            Tamp , Tamp, Tamp. Straitening up, I take a deep breath, then down again, tamp, tamp, tamp. I am packing the dirt around the last post of a new fence. I wield an old axe handle that had lost it head in a fight with an old stump years ago. It makes a great tamping stick and I apply it vigorously to the ground around the post. When I at last am done, I stand up straight, draw in a big breath of air, square my shoulders and stand in triumph. All the post are in and standing at attention! I relish for a few moments the satisfaction of a job well done. Now to see if the post can pass muster. I prop the old axe handle up against the last post. I step back so I can sight down the post to see if they all line up. Bending slightly, I cast my eye down the post and then, “What!?” I jump in dismay. Not one post stands in line with his brother. How in the world did I get these so crooked I think! It was as if each post had taken its own way. One had ventured a little to the east, another a smidge to the west. Others had taken a little excursion from the line and some had defied the straight and narrow and stood defiantly far askew. Muttering under my breath and scratching my head in vexation I gathered up my tools and headed in for the night.  

            Now how was it that with such a perfect plan in my head, with so many steps walking back and forth to make sure I had all things in order, did I make such a crazy fence? A veritable fence that Jack built! Well, my wife assured me, “where this fence is, no one will notice, and besides it looks rustic, and I like rustic”. Well she was right on both accounts, she always is, but I knew in my soul I had a crooked fence, and aren’t things supposed to get rustic after years of being beaten by storms and tempest? Not start their lives paths that way.

Wouldn’t have been so bad if I were trying to make a crooked fence straight. Yes, a crooked fence straight.   You know those rail fences that meander over hill and dale you can still see in the old west? The ones made without upright poles? They just sort of sashay back and forth across the ground, and one can be excused if they get off the line a bit. 

            But straight fences are supposed to be straight. That’s just the way it is and from now on, I will try harder to make sure they stay straight.

            And in my soul too. Thank heavens, I have greater hope there. There I know  I have a better fence maker then my farm has in me. I know that therein the problem of my crooked lines comes from the weak material He has to work with, and not the lack of knowledge or power on His part. And so I resolve to make a greater effort not to jump to right or left, and try to stay upon the straight and narrow. And how?

 

In all thy ways know thou Him, And He doth make straight thy paths.

                                                                                                            Proverbs 3:6

             Now off to fix the electric fence. I will pay strict attention. It's discipline is swift and certain. Quite a shock really. Worth doing right the first time.

Have a great day!

David Cools