So I was looking at pictures of my old house, and I began thinking through some of the memories that we made there. Good memories. I remember when we put an addition on that house. We added a 2 car garage with a family room built over it.
Our house had been built in the early 1940s, so when we went to put the addition on, we had a hard time matching the brick. We actually had to have the bricks fired in North Carolina because there was a place there that fired them in a coal furnace vs. a gas furnace like they are made today. The coal furnace gave the bricks a different color than the “red bricks” made today. (random fact, you’re welcome. Haha)
Anyway, since the bricks we needed were so hard to come by, my husband had placed the order for more bricks than we needed, “just in case” we needed them down the road. After the addition was completed, we stored the leftover bricks on a palette on the driveway, up against a stone wall that projected out from the original house garage. Cemented into that stone wall was a metal railing of sorts and a vine (which I later learned was called a Trumpet Vine) grew along the railing. The vine had beautiful orange flowers on it that attracted hummingbirds. (Those of you who know me well know I LOVE birds.)
Well, one day we decided to clean up the landscaping. The guy who owned the house before we bought it had planted so many bushes, vine, roses, trees, etc. It was beautiful, but I liked things that were more cleared out and simple. So one Saturday, our work day commenced.
As I looked at the back of the house, my attention was drawn to the trumpet vine. Why hadn’t I noticed before that the vine had completely taken over that palette of bricks stacked against the stone wall? Well, you know how bricks have four sides, two flat sides and two with holes that go through to the corresponding side? Well, that vine had woven itself all throughout that stack of bricks.
So I began the tedious job of unwinding the vine from the bricks. At the end of the stack of bricks the shoots of the vine were soft and pliable. This isn’t so bad, I thought. But as I continued to work the shoots through the bricks, I noticed that the further I got into the stack of bricks, the tougher my job was getting. What had been a tender shoot just a couple of bricks ago was now becoming thicker and harder to maneuver and control. Eventually what had begun a soft shoot had turned woody. I was trying to bend and feed a BRANCH through the bricks!! The idea of being able to feed the vine back through the bricks and put it back on the railing quickly showed itself nearly impossible. So, I headed to the shed to get a saw to cut the branch from where it first entered the bricks, so I could proceed to get rid of it. Once I cut it at the source, I had to then cut it out, brick by brick. Man, if I had only just pulled off the first little green shoot that grabbed onto those bricks before it wound its way through these bricks and hardened, I wouldn’t be stuck doing this hard work now.
As I was walking to the shed, God began to speak to my heart and mind. Yep, using something like bricks and a creeping vine God was teaching me about sin.
Think about it…usually when people sin, they don’t give it much thought, just like I hadn’t noticed or given thought to the first tender shoot growing toward that palette of bricks. But left unacknowledged, sin’s effects continue to creep throughout your life…quickly taking over your thoughts, and then your actions, which will ultimately affect your relationships.
God then brought to my mind the passage of Scripture from James 1:14-15 “but each person is tempted when they are dragged away by their own evil desire and enticed. Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death.“ See the process here. Sin’s consequences are not usually instant. That’s the ploy of satan. Do it now…enjoy it now…reap the consequences later. And sad to say, this works so well because we are a society of people who are living for instant gratification, with little or no thought of what is to come.
So remembering this morning all about the bricks and the trumpet vine, I decided to research what I could find out about it. Check this out:
- A trumpet vine can cover a fence, arbor or trellis quickly
- It can climb about 15 ft. in a matter of a few years
- It should be planted alone
- It’s very invasive, choking out other plants around it
- It gets very woody, needing a strong support for its weight
- It has been known to destroy buildings, growing through bricks and the wood of windows.
WOW!! Think of how comparable that is to sin.
- Sin can cover or take over a life quickly
- It can cover a lot of “territory” in your life in a short time
- Usually when we sin, we do so alone
- It will quickly invade more and more areas of your life, choking out good things in your life
- The longer left unacknowledged, the stronger hold it gets on you; and the heavier the weight of your sin will be to carry
- If you don’t cut the sin out of your life, it can destroy your life, your relationships…it will steal your peace and your joy.
That picture of how sin works and its effects has really stuck with me…and to think God taught me using a palette of bricks and a trumpet vine. Yup! God is DEFINITELY awesome!