The Leaves Won’t Leave

We don’t have ANY trees in our back yard at all, and yet we have leaves all over the place.

It’s a lot of work to take care of the leaves. It takes time to rake them up, or suck them up in the mower bag, and then put them in brown bags (not plastic!), and then take them to the town ‘leaf dumping’ site.

I mean, I assume it’s a lot of work. This year I was in bed with the flu when the weather was nice and didn’t get to help Jimmy at all. But Sia did!

We live in an interesting area. Just before the bend in the road where you get to our house, the town changes from Gates to Greece. [Yes, we’re Greeks living in ‘Greece’, NY. Tina don’t say I’m not Greek. I know.]

The town of Gates has a service where, if you rake your leaves to the edge of the road, they will eventually come and vacuum them up for you. Not so in Greece! The residents on our end of the street have to rake them, bag them, and take them to be disposed of. Unless your garbage company will do it, which ours won’t. Or you just ignore them and leave them where they fall.

However, there are some people in our end of the street who blow their leaves to the edge of the road, like they hope the Gates town workers will notice their piles, have pity on them, and just come vacuum them up. Hasn’t happened yet!

The problem then is that our perfectly clean yard (that Jimmy has literally spent hours raking and bagging) gets leaves blown into it from people who haven’t bagged theirs up. The wind blows, and what do you know? Our yard is full of leaves again.Let me remind you- we have no trees.

But this is what happens when you live in close proximity to other people. Their leaves get in your yard. You can deal with it in a couple different ways:

1. You can knock on their door and kindly inform them that the town of Greece doesn’t vacuum up leaves, and they’ll have to bag them up and dispose of them, or just leave them on the grass where they fall, instead of blowing them to the edge of the road. (One of our neighbors is new, so maybe they don’t know that.)
2. You can watch out your window for your neighbor, and when they get home from work, run outside and yell at them, gesturing emphatically to their leaves all over your yard, informing them that because of how hard you’ve been working, yesterday there were NONE thankyouverymuch, and now there are a million again.
3. You can blow them back into the neighbor’s yard for them to clean up again, with no guarantee they will bag them up and dispose of them next time, either.
4. You can just clean them up.

The fact of the matter is, regardless of where they started out, those leaves are now in your yard, which makes them your responsibility. Oh the joys of home ownership!! It doesn’t really seem fair though, does it? We have zero trees, but tons of leaves, with more falling all the time. Especially the back yard. My husband worked hard to clean up our yard (literal hours) and then someone else’s leaves make more work for him. It can be exhausting.

Can our spiritual lives be similar? If we are ministering in close proximity with other people (is there any other way?), their ‘leaves’ are gonna get in our yard. It’s a fact of life. It happens- whether due to ignorance on their part of how to clean them up, or negligence, or even apathy. Being close to people means getting to know their business, learning their struggles, praying with them through hard times, listening to and loving them regardless of what life brings their way, enjoying time together in fellowship and fun. Seeing their ‘leaves’ up close. Do I really think that should never affect me?

I can’t enjoy the blessing of the shade leaves give in the summer, and then curse those same leaves when fall comes.

Sometimes people’s ‘leaves’ will fall in my yard through no fault of their own. Trees shed- it’s a fact of life. – Sometimes they’ll blow them in my yard on purpose so they don’t have to deal with them.

Sometimes they’ll have cleaned them up, but not disposed of them properly, so they come tumbling into my yard with the first wind that blows. So how will I respond?

First I have to remember that while we don’t have any trees in our yard, we are still part of this neighborhood. And we used to have trees. The former owner of our house had them cut down. So I can’t say my leaves never landed on anyone else’s yard.

Second, I can think positively about them. Did you know that leaves make great mulch? But it requires some work to use them to full advantage. Leaving them whole can block air, light, and water to the areas you’re trying to feed. You have to mulch them up first, which means getting in there, and possibly getting your hands dirty, or taking the time to push a mower that will chop them up for you.

Sometimes that looks like deciding I’m not going to watch the game, or binge that show, or read that book, but go out and help my neighbor clean up their ‘leaves’. It’s deciding that the needs of another are more important than my wants. If we’re to love like Jesus, we have to be intentional about making the time to do it.

When we deal with ‘leaves’, and turn them into the foundation for something positive, it stimulates growth. Instead of being angry or frustrated by all the leaves in our yard, we can look at them with thanksgiving because growth is coming!

You won’t see the results right away, but come spring your yard will be greener than it’s ever been. And all those leaves you mulched will have disappeared into the ground.

So maybe today be thankful for the leaves, no matter how they got into your yard.

1 Peter 5:10 “But the God of all grace, who hath called us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after that ye have suffered a while, make you perfect, stablish, strengthen, settle you.”

James 1: 2-4 “My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations; (3) Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience. (4) But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.”

John 15:12-13 “This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you. (13) Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.”