This land close to home was recently harvested for timber. Many of our neighbors, and my wife, are perplexed over how the beautiful forest on the drive into the community has disappeared. The change has been shocking and it is the second woods close to home that has been cleared in the last year. I am not sure how to feel.
Someone owns this land and who are we to say they can not realized a profit for the timber? Does it make a difference how the wood will be used? Did the owners do any studies to verify how removing the timber would impact the local environment? When I see newly timbered land I often think the workers could have done a better job cleaning up so the ground looks neat and tidy. Is pleasing our eye important when it comes to land management?
This field is littered with stumps, branches, and unusable debris. The loggers left several large trees that must have been too big, twisted, and perhaps the wrong kind of wood for commercial value. Now they are orphans. The giant orphans stand alone waiting for whatever happens next on this ground. The giants are shooting out the bright green leaves of spring as if to say something new is about to happen.
While driving home yesterday I looked at the field on a stormy late afternoon and took this photo. I could see beauty in the profane condition of this field. It reminded me of us. You and me.
We can be torn up, turned over, and left in unsightly condition. We can have healthy harvest in our lives, and yet we can be a complete mess. We can be rained on and the wind can rumble across every aspect of our life. Yet in the middle stands this invitation that Christ gives to a better life. The invitation that offers renewal and tells us of something bigger.
When I look at the field I am going to try think about what it can become. That will be better than lamenting the current state that exists. I'll call it hope.