I was laboring in the earth this weekend.  I pulled weeds, trimmed the bittersweet (it is useless to try and pull it out; I'm not strong enough); cleared out the area between our house and the neighbor's fence (a two-foot wide by ten foot area, so it's hard to work in), and basically I worked until my hair was soaked with sweat, and the sweat dripped down my face despite my hat, and stung my eyes until they watered. Sunday morning, I was so stiff I could barely get out of bed--but in a weird kind of way, it felt GOOD! I met the thorns and thistles of the earth--and I conquered them! I pulled huge patches of ragweed from the left side of the lawn, where it likes to grow. I cleared grass and every imaginable weed from my flowerbed alongside the driveway. I trimmed the bittersweet, everywhere I saw it. It was exhausting, and I pushed myself too hard, but it was good, good, good to triumph over my enemies the weeds! Three years ago, my cancer broke me. It left me with painful neuralgia and very thin hair. I developed diabetes. It left me often sleepless, my asthma worse, and the hardest thing of all was the way the chemo sapped my strength and energy. Even when I work hard and gain muscle tone, I don't seem to get stronger. One day I have energy; the next I don't. It is so frustrating, annoying, and such a roadblock to my day-- Yet on I go, adjusting my schedule as best I can to compensate for my energy level and to be useful to my family. I never expected this aspect of the cancer journey! Please don't feel as though this will happen to you--everyone is different!  But if you do wake up some morning years from now, and your energy slides away just in getting out of bed--remember the thorns. This world is a thorny place, both literally and physically. The Scottish love their prickly thistles for they once saved them from the enemy.* But most others detest them. Those irritating little thorns--they work into your skin and sometimes it takes days of soaking and attempts with tweezers to get them out. They scratch and bite at you it seems--making everything so difficult! But thistles, despite their seemingly lack of usefulness, are useful to God. Isn't it amazing that God can use something we rarely think about, and then only with disgust? But think this way--diabetes. That's a thistle. Neuropathy. That may be many thistles!! Depression, ADHD--thistles. Abuse, anxiety, terrible diseases--thistles. Life circumstances, horrible accidents and unexpected tragedies--all thistles. Lack of sleep, or energy--a huge thistle patch in the middle of a hillside! Cancer—that is an entire field of thistles. Little thorns and prickles, no matter what we do or where we go. I'm so thankful for the God who does not merely mow down the thistles in my life. He has a purpose for those thistles that poke and prod and irritate you. Someday they will teach you patience, steadfastness, strength. They will teach you empathy, courage, and encouragement. They will teach you vision and purpose. They will teach you of the Savior's love for you. Those throbbing wounds are worth something, when they turn our hearts toward Him. Someday--maybe not today or tomorrow or any time soon on this earth--someday He will completely eradicate them as they are. But for now--sometimes they grow thick and tall and seem to choke you. Sometimes they are a single prick that will not go away. Sometimes He mows them, as it were--and sometimes not. Yet, yet, YET-- have you ever stopped to actually LOOK closely at a thistle flower?! How the bees love them, especially big fat bumblebees and honeybees. The blossoms are often a strong purple, or deep pink in color. They are decorated with fuzzy little caps atop the stalk, full of sweetness and pollen to attract the bees, butterflies, and other insects. Perhaps that is why they armor themselves so thickly--to protect that precious flower! The leaves and stems are also thick with prickly fuzz, so thick it appears silvery in the light. There are long, stabbing thorns at the lobes of the leaves, like gallant sword-bearers surrounding their precious treasure. And they grow stiff and tall above the other grasses and weeds, and have a tendency to spread rather quickly. And in their own, odd, prickly way, they are beautiful--but I would not encourage you to pick them for a bouquet! I think we need those prickles in our lives. Sometimes we need stabbing thorns. These remind us of the greater picture, of the knowledge that Jesus wore a crown of thorns for us. They were not thistles, but they bit into his skin and caused him to bleed--for us, the children of His Grace and mercy. On a day like this, when I am still stiff and sore, when my energy is once again low and there are a thousand thousand things to do--and I may accomplish five of them-- The thistles remind me that though our world is broken and full of hurt and shame and sickness--one day even thistles will be changed.  They will stand proudly in a field, and their thorns will be gone, and little children will pick them for a kitchen table display. And one day, we will awaken with no tiredness or soreness, no diabetes or asthma, no cancer or other evil disease--and our work will be light and filled with joy! We will stand in a field, a purple and pink haze of color, knowing we can wade in and pick them with joy. The constant prickles and thorns of this life will be a forgotten memory. But the thorns that prick and hurt today remind us of our weakness, of our need for Jesus, and the crown of thorns He wore to the cross. Praise God for the thistles that remind us of Him! 🏞️💓

There are many beautiful little treasures in this beloved Psalm, and these verses are one of my favorites! What does it mean to be hemmed in? Most people would think of sewing, but this is one of those verses that reminds me of growing up on our family farm. When the sheep escaped the confines of the farm and were wandering loose, or we needed to round them up for shearing or de-worming or bad weather, we would start from somewhere behind them, and gently, slowly, funnel them so that they came together as a group and meandered back in through the gate. You can't rush sheep. They are incredibly stupid animals! But gathering up a flock of contrary sheep who willfully followed one after the other toward freedom (there was one wily old ewe who usually led the way) was much more difficult. There weren't many of us; often me and a sibling or two, or my mom or dad, and there were many more sheep than people. And once a sheep gets a taste of freedom (the grass always being greener on the other side!), they will break loose over and over--until the fence is repaired and the gates kept shut. Gathering them is not easy. The "funnel" is full of holes. There are bushes, trees, clumps of thick weeds. There is the sight of green grass ahead and the open road. Sheep have one-track minds! They are not exceptionally bright; they are stubborn and foolish and will not listen and obey. They are easily frightened and run off in a panic for no reason, one sheep following another over the hillside. And yet, so as to not frighten them, we would walk slowly, meandering along at an extremely slow pace (and thinking of all the other things we could be doing if it weren't for those darn sheep!), walking them quietly down the hill, a little pressure here, a little pressure there to force them back to the safety of the pasture. If the sheep catch on, they invariably make another run for it. It requires patience and gentleness, with a hard nudge here and there. Sheep sound terribly like us, don't they?! I used to puzzle over why, in Jesus' parable in Matthew, it was the goats who were punished and not the sheep, until I realized that WE are like sheep. Stupid, stubborn and disobedient! AND YET-- God hems us in, behind and before. He gently leads us along the right path. He sometimes needs to lay a hand upon us a bit forcefully, but the strong hand of the LORD gives us well-deserved whacks only when we need it. 'Ooh,' thinks a foolish sheep, 'what's that dangerous but cool-looking thing over there?!' WHACK! God administers a well-meaning smack! But once we are back in the fold, back in those green pastures, His hand gentles and soothes and holds us close. Oh, to be hemmed in by the LORD! To have the sense to never roam! Such knowledge is so wonderful that we can't even begin to understand it! WHY would He bring me home, rebellious and stubborn as I am?! WHY would He lay His hand upon me, to teach me, to hold me?! WHY would He bother with me?! I am just one sheep, always fighting him, always seeking that greener grass, always thinking my way is best! WHY DOES HE DO IT?! BECAUSE HE LOVES ME!  Little sheep, learn your value. You are precious to the Good Shepherd. HE LOVES YOU!!! Do you not know this?! The knowledge is too wonderful to attain, but when you feel his arms around you or feel his not-so-gentle prod--accept the path chosen for you, and rest in His arms of love. The Good Shepherd holds you close, for He loves you, you silly sheep! Lie down and rest in Him.

Isn't it amazing that the LORD thinks of us? In the poverty of our spirits, He fills us up with the Living Water and gives us new life. We are nothing; weak, poor and pitiful, but He, the great I AM, takes thought of me! How incredible! I think that when you "take thought" of someone or something, you are deliberately focusing on that thing, thinking solely upon that person, devoted in your thoughts to that person or thing. I know that I, personally, have thoughts that skip around in my brain like a hyperactive bunny rabbit! I have a hard time focusing on any particular thing. Yet our wonderful God deliberately focuses His heart on each one of us! I would love to know how He does this! It is mind boggling, because His focus is on YOU and on ME, and on EVERY one of His children--and everything from the weather to whales making rain bows as they exhale from their blowholes! He sees the Sparrow's fall, the tears you cry, the things that cause you to rejoice and the things that break you. AND controls the universe! AND the affairs of kings and governments, AND He knows ALL things--there is NOTHING held secret from Him. Yet He gives thought to you, in your state of healing or the wounds of your body and heart. And when He thinks of YOU, His heart is full of joy and delight! No matter where we are--filled with joy and worship or struggling to get out of bed--He sees us, knows us, and takes thought of YOU His precious child! What a God! What a Savior! Come let us bow down & worship Him today!