August 21 – “all the way …”

Ah, the joys of driving over to Nathan’s and picking up the lawn mower, yet again, and beginning that wonderful weekly task of mowing and edging and weedeating the yard.  Oh, and toss in there lopping some more branches off of trees. (Different tree this time.  And at least this one hadn’t fallen into the yard.  And we’re still not done with the whole tree branch thing.  Still have some branches over the driveway that get precariously close to the car whenever it rains, and two trees are putting out branches that are getting a little too close for comfort to our roof.  Can’t have that going on in the middle of hurricane season). 

I texted Nathan to see if we could come get the machine, and he answered a while later.  Come to find out he didn’t notice the text until he was headed out to … mow his yard.  He happily granted our request, though.  Just asked that we return it in the afternoon so he could continue with his own mowing plans.  Well, that just made me feel bad for encroaching upon his carefully laid morning schedule.  So after I toiled through our own yard (And it was exceptionally hot, by the way.  I’m pretty sure I picked up a little sunburn this time.  And I said “I” because I tried to convince Chris to stay inside and work on a quilt or something.  She did for a while, but she just couldn’t stand it.  She joined me and took care of the sweeping), we both returned the mower to Nathan.  Now when we arrived, he wasn’t home yet.  That’s not a real problem, because we know the garage code, but the opportunity was just too good to pass up.  We started mowing his yard as well.  And as we did, one of his neighbors – the really old guy across the street - came outside, got in his car, backed out of his driveway and “all the way” down - at least two house lengths - to where we were working.  He was just worried that Nathan was sick or hurt or something.  Why else would he have two old geezers out mowing his grass?  Once he was satisfied that all was well, he drove “all the way” back over to his house and parked his car again.  So much for our attempt to keep the project a secret.  Nathan called as soon as he got home wanting to know if it was us who mowed the grass.  Oh, well.  At least I had a chance to tell him that I forgot to empty the grass catcher.  But isn’t it great to have concerned neighbors? 

1 Corinthians 10:23-24 says, “’Everything is permissible’-but not everything is beneficial. ‘Everything is permissible’-but not everything is constructive.  Nobody should seek his own good, but the good of others.”

Father, thank you for concerned neighbors who keep a watch over each other, especially when one of the “each other’s” is my son and his family.  Amen.