Boo!

by: carole l. haines

Autumn Harvest is upon us!  The angle of the Sun has changed.  The Nights grow cooler and the days grow shorter.  I decorate for every season outside my house, and Fall is one of my favorites to decorate for.  I get out the scarecrows, the lighted pumpkins.  I decorate my door with wreaths of sunflowers, colored leaves and berries.  This year I thought it would be fun for My husband, son, and I to dress our scarecrows with our old clothes, and then put them where we normally are working outside.  So Bruce’s scarecrow went into the jump-seat, in the bed of his 1986 Subaru Brat. Mine went straight into the front gardens.  But our son, Cody, placed his standing up right next to his classic car, a 1972 AMC Javeline.  Now it’s darker in the mornings, so when I leave, and when my husband leaves, we have both nearly jumped out of our skins, forgetting that the scarecrow is right there, in the driveway, next to the Javeline, looking right at us. It’s as if it jumps up from behind the car and says, “Boo!” We put the scarecrow there, but it nearly scares us to death in the morning sometimes.

This reminded me of the fact that we decorate our minds with worries and fears, anxieties and stress; that are not even real, and may never be.  We fret over a future that is not here, and may never come.  Bad things do happen, but that can’t be our focus, because we don’t know what the future holds.  We need to focus on the One who holds the future in His Hands.
We have come to know and have believed the love which God has for us. God is love, and the one who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. (1John 4:16 NASB)

Getting to know God, believing His promises, Trusting His Word; these need to be our focus.  Why? Because we are helpless to protect ourselves from the dangers of this world.  We do what we can, but ultimately, God is our protector, savior, and redeemer.  Even when bad things happen, God promises to work them for good in our lives. (Romans 8:28 NASB) So let’s get our focus on the right things, and get to know this God who is love, whom we abide in, and who abides in us, as believers in Jesus Christ.  If we don’t trust God, we will find ourselves constantly startled by the scarecrows we place in our own minds.