Matthew 18:9 “If your hand or your foot causes you to
stumble, cut it off and throw it away; it is better for you to enter life
maimed or lame than to have two hands or two feet and to be thrown into the
eternal fire. And if your eye causes you to stumble, tear it out and throw it
away; it is better for you to enter life with one eye than to have two eyes and
to be thrown into the hell of fire.
Around the corner from our house a huge, mostly dead tree
with truncated limbs stands sentinel over a small house. I say “mostly dead” because there is still
one living limb and a few green leaves at the cut off top of the tree. I wrote about this tree in a Musings last
year citing it as an example of resilience.
Yet the remaining tree limbs continue to rot and last week one fell. This
morning a tree service pulled in as I began my walk and as I came back by I
discovered my friends Jeff and Sheri Cuttino own the rental house. I stayed there and chatted with Sheri as we
watched the crew cut the dead branches off that were endangering the
house. It would be too expensive to take
the entire tree down, although it will happen one day. Sheri and I talked about how we don’t like to
kill living plants but in some cases it must happen. I thought about this scripture. There are times in our lives when we must rid
ourselves of either excess personal property or harmful habits. Where the latter
may be a sin of commission, the former is sometimes a sin of excess – related to
greed and gluttony. To rid ourselves of
either of these will be good for ourselves and others will benefit also. Think today about what you might need to
eliminate from your life.
Holy God, help us to know when to hold on and when to let
go. We ask in Jesus’ name. Amen.
Blessings,
Paige
Paige
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