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Over the last 5.5 years we’ve lived here we’ve planted several Columnar Apple Trees along the fence line. They’re still pretty small and not all of them have started producing fruit yet, but they’re getting there. Some look like little sticks coming out of the ground. So, we placed small pieces of corrugated pipe around the trunks to protect them from getting damaged. Either by humans not seeing them, or dogs ruining them.
In between the trees we’ve planted Irises. That project was two-fold. One, it allowed us to make the fence line prettier; and two it gave us a place to plant the dozens of iris plants left in various places around the property when we moved in.
Over the years, the dogs often chase or play with each other or other dogs along the fence line narrowly dodging the trees. Or they’ll be chasing a squirrel, bird, or scent and plow right into the tree. Practically giving themselves a concussion and potentially damaging the tree. Wyatt, being the mischievous puppy that he is has also been known to pull the corrugated pipe off the trunk and chew on it.
So, we decided to expand the garden yet again.
Monday we went out and took the existing fence up and relocated it further down. Basically, we just took it up and flipped it the opposite way running the garden fence down the existing fence line. This not only protects the trees but also gives us a little more growing space.
But, to the dogs, we just took part of their yard away. Again. We look at it as protecting them and the trees, but they just see that they have less space to run. And I thought that that’s often how we look at closed doors (or windows) in our lives.
God often opens and closes doors in our lives and whatever He chooses to do with a particular door can’t be undone (see Revelation 3:17).
So many times in my life I’ve gotten angry at God for closing a door. But the truth is I can’t see what He sees. Isaiah 55:8-9 reminds us that God’s plans aren’t our plans. He may close a door to protect us from something harmful or not in our best interest. Or He may close a door to something good to give us something better.
When God either opens or closes a door that we don’t understand we’ve got to trust Him. Jeremiah 29:11 and Romans 8:28 assures us that God has good plans for our lives. We may never understand what God is doing or why, but I think that a lot of times we don’t have to.
On Sunday, the preacher reminded us that we live by faith, not by sight (2 Corinthians 5:7). The life that we live on earth is just a blip when we think of eternity. He reminded us that maybe we don’t have to understand everything or know why He does what He does. And honestly, we can’t see or know what God does, why drive ourselves up a wall trying to figure it out? Instead, we should be trying to glorify God in all we do (Colossians 3:23) and living with eternity in mind. Not wasting a minute of this precious life we’ve been given (Ephesians 5:16).
Until next time,
Bailey Sue
P.S. If you’d like to do something similar in your own yard, these are the supplies you’ll need. You will also need fencing wire to attach the chicken wire to the t-post. I wasn’t able to find anything similar to what we used to link to. For this particular project we just used what we had which happened to be the thin wire that was used to bound the chicken wire together.
Worthwhile project for sure!!!
Yes, it is! (: