Tales of the Garden Scrooge

I'm not a tree hugger. Or at least... I don't identify that way. 

But when I came home to a host of large trucks and trailers with cherry pickers, stump grinders, and shredders, my heart sank. Hearing the chorus of chainsaws at my next door neighbors house felt like listening to the death march. 

Scrooge. Thats our nickname for our neighbor. The Garden Scrooge.

Over the last 4 years living here, we've watched him slowly undo the work his mother had done when she was physically able to garden. One flowerbed at a time, he would rip out the flowers, or had them mowed down. A tree here, a shrub there. It was shocking each and every time. 

And then, he went big. 

Over the course of the last month, he has had a crew of 6 guys next door leveling EVERY SINGLE tree on his almost-acre. We talked to the crew, and they don't get it either. All of the trees are mature, and healthy. Almost zero risk of falling on his house. 

And let me share some context: we live in a special pocket of our town- an unincorporated small street with homes built in the 60's. Which means the trees have all been given plenty of time to grow large. In a fast growing area where most of the houses were built on old farmland within the last decade, finding a place with mature trees is actually pretty special. It's the reason we moved to this fixer-upper 4 years ago. Since moving here, we have spend countless hours reclaiming the overgrown flower beds and planting new ones. Every time we turn around, new flowers are blooming everywhere, fruits are bearing, and life is starting to flourish. This kind of space is refreshing to our souls. And the best part of our yard is the trees. When our friends come over, they always exclaim about how great and big the trees are.

Which is why watching our neighbor cut every single one of his trees down is stupefying. Observing the madness, it hit me. "He is spending like twenty-five grand and decreasing his property value by close to the same amount," I thought. As we are working hard to install plants and beautify our previously neglected yard, our neighbor is having his destroyed, and it is literally painful to watch.

As men, specifically, we were placed in the garden to "work" and to "keep", aka: "cultivate" and "protect." To be life-givers. It is the enemy that is out slithering around to steal, kill and destroy. 

That word destroy has interesting roots. The latin meaning for "de-" is to completely undo, or to do the opposite of. The meaning for "-stroy" comes from the root "stere" which means something along the lines of "spread out, grow, construct, instruct, order." Evil comes to destroy; to cut off and undo life.

Am I calling my neighbor evil? No, I'm not going that far. But as we admire the beauty that we've cultivated in our yard, the gnawing of chainsaws next door serves as a sad reminder that Evil is at work all around us, despite what we might want to believe or do. We can work towards the restored Kingdom, and it will come, but meanwhile there is a serpent still at work in the garden. 

How are you aware of evil at work around you, seeking to cut off you or those you know?

What are you praying for and doing to work towards the restoration of the Kingdom?

Cody Buriff, Director of Resource Initiatives