The legacy of a great wife from a grieving husband.

As the days of healing pass over me I want to share my thoughts with those who care.

Friday 23 September 2011

(Un)Greatfulness

Well, the summer is over and the fall slowly begins.  One of our late summer activities is packing up firewood for the winter months. Usually we dedicate a whole day to this. Sometimes we cut our own wood from our forest, sometimes we buy it from one of our neighbors that sell firewood and sometimes like this year, we do the combination of both. I being the “man of the house” take the chainsaw, the ax and go to fell the trees and cut them into long enough pieces for the stove, split them into blocks, then leave them in a small pile where it is accessible for pick-up. The children in the mean time load up the truck or trailer then we drive it behind the house and pack them neatly in the woodshed.


At one point I needed to take a break. I was out of breath my shirt was soaked from sweat my arms and back were on fire from the vibration of the saw and swinging the ax for hours. I tell you there is no Gym that gives you a workout like that.



 I felt sad as I looked around…In years past by this time Miriam would be out there with a beautiful smile offering me a cold beer or water, making some flirty remarks about how much she liked the dirty roughed looking logger I was. Ah! If I could have that once again…

Anyways, since all of us were busy I made my way back into the house to get my own water to quench my thirst. On the way in, my son who was a little tired and frustrated by this time (I remember those days too, when I was young it seemed like it was a waste of  a precious day to do chores instead of having fun), made the remark of how “… you give us the hard part of the work loading and un loading the truck while you just take the easy part of the job cutting and splitting…” 
I felt offended… I might’ve made cutting wood look easy but I knew that it was much harder and more dangerous then loading. Then I thought “I was loading with them most of the time too”. Why would he say things like that?...
After a few minutes of reflecting on what I just heard, I admonished him for his thoughtless and disrespectful remarks.
I thought that if I let him go away without correction I would do no favor to him. Many of us stumble and get hurt severely by our own fault in life because we ourselves or others around us ignored the small occurrences of the same sins and problems. The word of God says in Proverbs13:24 “
He who spares the rod hates his son, but he who loves him is careful to discipline him”
For the rest of the day I could not stop thinking about what just happened. Then it occurred to me …How often we treat our gracious God the same way. We take for granted that the sun rises and sets each day, that the rain/snow falls in it time to nourish the land. Then there is food on our table, clothing and houses to protect us from the elements…. on and on I could go …plus all the things we don’t need yet still enjoy to have… He gives them because He loves us. Then what do we do? Grumble and complain, we think it is easy for him he is God. Many times we think, He leaves us with the hard stuff and just walks away. Etc.

Well, I made sure that before we settled down at the end of the day I gave a big hug to my son and let him and my daughters know how much I love them and appreciate their help not just today but all the time, even if I do not always say it.

 

Then I went into my room, knelt before my Father asked for His forgivennes for my ungreatfulness then thanked him for all He has done and is doing for us day by day moment by moment. For His Son who was sweating, even drops of blood, as he took on the weight of our sin. His arms and back, his whole body was on fire and in pain from the abuse of man, yes, because of my sin. He was forsaken even by God himself. Oh, by no means was it easy for him! Yet he did not stop until He could cry “IT IS FINISHED!!!”  

I pray that He would grant us to appreciate His great work so much, that as He asked us, we would go and tell others about it.

Let us labor for the Master from the dawn till setting sun,
Let us talk of all His wondrous love and care;
Then when all of life is over, and our work on earth is done,
And the roll is called up yonder, I’ll be there.

For his Glory,

Nandor

P.S. This story was posted with my son's permission.

2 comments:

  1. Awesome post Nandor. Thanks for sharing God's word through your life experiences.
    Denise

    ReplyDelete
  2. So very relateable! This spoke to me. Thanks for your candor and for glimpses of how God is working in your lives.

    ReplyDelete