Raking leaves is like salvation

 (I wrote this several years ago when I was in the States for graduate studies.)

My parents have lived in the same house for over thirty  years, so the trees in our yard have significantly changed in their ability to output leaves since I was in high school. Significantly.

I’m used to Chinese  trees that have all of their branches hacked off and aren’t allowed to get  overly large. While one of the highlights of the fall has been all of the  leaves and COLOR (oh ‘tis food for the eye and soul!) there sure are a lot of leaves to deal with. In our yard when only about half of the leaves were down the question arose, would be better to do the entire task twice in smaller chunks or wait until all of the leaves were down and we were completely buried.

I went with smaller chunks. So I raked and mowed and had a jolly break from studying. The front lawn was nearly done when a big wind came and suddenly there were leaves all around me. In my Biblical Interpretation class I had done a word study on what it means to work out your salvation (from Philippians). As the leaves fell around me I looked up at the branches and laughingly shouted, “Raking leaves is like salvation; it is done and yet it is still on going.” I am saved and while the work is completely done … there are still some leaves falling that need attending to.