The house itself would probably be called small yet, not only is it not the smallest house plan in the neighborhood, it is 150 square feet more than I raised my boys in. But then they had five acres to play in, so maybe that's not a fair comparison. Our yard is so small it can be mown in 15 minutes. The house itself is that color of gray you see everywhere now, the popularity of which I have never understood. Who wants a house the color of a concrete block? It looks like a giant cinder block sitting on a pretty green lawn. Keith says he has never seen a cinder block this color, but that is still what it makes me think of.
The windows in front look out on a short hedge of schefflera bordered by a row of bright blue evolvulus, aptly named "Blue My Mind," and a desert rose sits out by the front curb. Two pink tabebuias share space in the tiny front yard, trees grown by our grandson Judah from the seeds of their own tabebuias. I can hardly wait until they bloom. Along the north side yard are a rose that blooms almost ferociously, huge beautiful red blooms, a gardenia that is also not bashful about blooming, and yet another schefflera. It may not be the wealth of bloom and color we had before, but it is not minimal either.
We are still working on the backyard. The back door now opens into a tiny corner screened porch, maybe 8 x 8. Too small for a real porch, so when more money comes along, we will screen in the new 10 x 15 slab we had poured, tearing down the back wall of the other and make one larger L-shaped screened porch. In view of that future, we planted a long row of fuchsia along the fence. Keith has also laid enough pavers for a patio right beside the slab that already holds the grill, the portable fire pit, and a couple of chairs. Once we are finished building back there, more planting will commence in the corners and sides, probably shade tolerant perennials and creeping ground covers.
For now, my elliptical machine is on that tiny back corner porch of the house. It takes up about a third of the whole room. But now that we no longer have big burly men in our house hammering, drilling, sawing, and grunting in various levels of exertion, I am back on the machine trying to keep myself as healthy as possible. And that is where I was when I heard it.
We must have been there a good four or five months before he came, sat on the grill lid handle, and started his beautiful loud song. Even I could see that jaunty little tail sticking up at its unusual angle against the white fence—a wren! All I had heard before was a hawk that circles the neighborhood from his home over the perimeter fence where a retention pond sits surrounded by yet more oaks. I have heard him several times since then and his sound makes me feel at home once again. They have wrens in this place! All is right with the world.
And the truth is, they have wrens every place in this state. And somehow, that brought to mind the vision Ezekiel saw in chapter 1. As I looked, behold, a stormy wind came out of the north, and a great cloud, with brightness around it, and fire flashing forth continually, and in the midst of the fire…came the likeness of four living creatures…they had a human likeness, but each had four faces, and each of them had four wings. Their legs were straight, and the soles of their feet were like the sole of a calf's foot. And they sparkled like burnished bronze. Under their wings on their four sides they had human hands. And the four had their faces and their wings thus: their wings touched one another. Each one of them went straight forward, without turning as they went…Wherever the spirit would go, they went, without turning as they went…Now as I looked at the living creatures, I saw a wheel on the earth beside the living creatures, one for each of the four of them. As for the appearance of the wheels and their construction: their appearance was like the gleaming of beryl. And the four had the same likeness, their appearance and construction being as it were a wheel within a wheel. When they went, they went in any of their four directions without turning as they went. And their rims were tall and awesome, and the rims of all four were full of eyes all around. And when the living creatures went, the wheels went beside them; and when the living creatures rose from the earth, the wheels rose. Wherever the spirit wanted to go, they went, and the wheels rose along with them, for the spirit of the living creatures was in the wheels. When those went, these went; and when those stood, these stood; and when those rose from the earth, the wheels rose along with them, for the spirit of the living creatures was in the wheels (Ezek 1:4-21).
I hope you can visualize that at least a little bit. The whole point is that this whatever-it-is could go anywhere, anytime, at a moment's notice. That was important for the people to hear. If you go back to the first couple of verses of the chapter, you see that Ezekiel is in Babylon along with the exiles. Those people had grown up in a culture which confined God to Jerusalem and, specifically, the Temple. Here they were, hundreds of miles away from God—or so they thought. It took Ezekiel several long years and, finally, a messenger recounting the fall of the city and destruction of the Temple, to get them to believe it when he told them God was there in Babylon with them, that God could be anywhere!
We have grown up with the idea of an invisible God who is anywhere and everywhere, but sometimes we seem to forget that too. No matter where we go, He is there. He hears, He sees—all those eyes on the wheels Ezekiel saw tell us that. And so, that morning, when I finally heard that little wren, I was reminded, too. God is here too, just like he was in all those lush green acres of birds and squirrels and foxes and bobcats and possums and raccoons, yes, and even snakes. He is wherever His people are, whenever they need Him. If anyone thought we were just dots on a five acre plot and of no importance to God, they might think we would really be lost to Him now, on this tiny postage stamp yard lost among thousands more people than before. But that just isn't true.
And He can find you too, no matter where you are or what you are going through. He may not send you a grand vision such as Ezekiel's; but maybe He will send you a little wren to remind you that God is always there for His people. He will never leave them alone.
The LORD is near to all who call on him, to all who call on him in truth (Ps 145:18).
Dene Ward