It seems like only yesterday that I was getting the rhododendrons and fruit trees in our yard ready for winter.
The neighborhood deer like to eat them. It doesn't matter how cold or warm the winter is, those animals consider our shrubbery and trees just so much delicacies. So, I put fences around the trees and bushes every year in the late fall to keep the deer from getting close enough to sink their teeth into them.
The fences I make are very eclectic. I use wire fencing of different sizes that has been saved from season to season. In the summer it is put around the vegetable garden plots to discourage groundhogs, rabbits and chipmunks.
I use plastic fencing, too, because it is flexible and can fill in any gaps. I use a combination of zip ties and pipe cleaners to hold everything together.
I was using some little orange-handled cutters that were versatile enough to cut all of the materials I was using for the fences. They were small, but tough and the spring action made them easy to use.
You can imagine my consternation and frustration, then, when I lost them. I was gathering up my materials and moving from one tree to another when, suddenly, I looked for them and they were gone! I looked over the path I had taken a hundred times, but it was like they had disappeared into thin air. I looked over paths I had not taken and they were not there either.
We have other cutters in various toolboxes in the barn, but none that work like that pair did. I know you think I'm silly, but I was heartbroken. I wouldn't expect to find another pair like them at a hardware store anywhere. Sweetheart and I have had them for a long time. We probably inherited them or got them at an auction.
Finally, I gave up the search for the day, finished my job and went into the house, but I didn't give up hope. I never forgot my little cutters. Every time I walked down the hillside to get the mail I walked through the place where I had been working and kept my eyes open for them. I must have looked for them a gazillion times. One day I was going through one of our toolboxes and found a reasonable replacement, but my heart still yearned for my little orange-handled cutters.
The next day Sweetheart and I were gathering up sticks and burning them.
Lo and behold! There were the little orange-handled cutters!
I was ecstatic! I threw my arms into the air and shouted, "Thank you, God!" I grabbed them and held them to my bosom. I ran to Sweetheart and shared the good news with him.
Gee, sometimes the whole world seems to be lost. There is so much division and hatred and violence. It's easy to give up hope. Maybe, when we have given up hope and put the world into God's hands, the world will be found.
If I was so excited about finding my cutters, I wonder how I will react when Jesus comes back.
Dorothy is the author of two books—“Miles and Miracles” and “Getting It All Together “. You can purchase a book or send a comment by emailing her at dorothybutzknight@gmail.com