Take us the foxes, the little foxes, that spoil the vines: for our vines have tender grapes. – Song of Solomon 2:15
This year has been a year of weather extremes, with winter storms stronger and longer than ever before. One night a gentle soft snow came down without the usual winds. The next morning we woke to a beautiful thick blanket of snow, still on the tree branches and on the tops of the bushes. I checked on my chicken/duck flock and saw the most unusual thing.
When we built our coop and run yard we put bird netting over the yard to keep the ravens out and the small flying banty chicks in. The netting is a very thin plastic thread with wide meshing; the type you throw over fruit trees to keep the birds off. There in the run was the mesh, stretched to the ground, under a foot and a half of snow, blocking the birds inside the coop house. How could that possibly be??
During the night the gentle soft flakes gathered on the fine mesh, building thicker and thicker as the hours went by, until it pulled the mesh all the way to the ground. A fast or wet snow would have gone right through the mesh, not sticking. Only a small, soft, dry snow would lie on top of the thin mesh.
It reminded me of the small temptations and sins that come in. Just little things like a movie with a “little” bit of poor language, a song with a “little” bit of negative talk, a “little” white lie, a book with a “few” inappropriate chapters, a day with a “little” gossip or a “little” negative conversations; a week without prayer or Bible study. It is the “little foxes” that spoil the vine, coming and taking just a “little” of the crop each day, ruining the vines and the roots until the entire plant is destroyed.
We don’t even see the foxes stealing in until the vines begin to die. We don’t realize how much of our life is tainted and our fruit spoiled with the “little” indiscretions in our walk. Little foxes, little sins, growing to life changing events; sneaking in.
God, let me always be aware of those “little” things that sneak into my life, tainting my walk and my Christian character. Help me walk past all that tempts my choices. May I always draw close to Your ways.
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Linda J. Humes 