Day Sixteen, Jan 16, 2019
As I walked about today in this beautiful little village of Sinnington... I was caught up by the old-English architecture and picturesque gardens. Each is unique and just a bit different in its own way...
But I’ve also been intrigued by the destructive path of the molehills which pop up all over the village pathways and gardens. My aunt says that to remediate them, you have to hire a mole-catcher and even then it’s quite hard.
As a semi-serious gardener, I’ve walked about throughout the village and just imagined myself plagued with yet another malady with which to contend in my own garden. We already suffer from Japanese beetles and now the dreaded spotted lantern fly... combined with record-breaking rain levels... I just can’t imagine mole-hills popping up all over my yard.
They stick up from the ground maybe six inches and it isn’t uncommon for them to be at least one to two feet in diameter!! Yet everything about them takes place under the ground!
I kept thinking all day about how that so often correlates with our own lives... how underground destructive behaviors bear fruit and consequences. Yet to catch them, we have to go to their roots. Perhaps there are some behaviors that immediately come to mind ... but usually with a bit more honest digging, we discover the less obvious behaviors which are still deadly and destructive...
Bitterness, offense, unforgiveness... lies we’ve accepted, believed and then harbored for years... all seemingly small and benign at the onset yet - just like these molehills... it will take an extraordinary amount of work to dig out the destructive roots - particularly if left to their own devices.
After walking past these mounds for a few days now, I’ve felt encouraged to never be afraid to dig deeply and sort through my own heart and be receptive to the areas that God reveals.
Because the reality is that although we may believe that these behaviors are hidden and therefore won’t bear obvious consequences - that simply is not true! Eventually our little molehills will begin to break through and weave a path through the picturesque settings we call home and the view will be spoiled ...
(And none of this is overly comforting given the fact that I’m terrified of rodents!)
