Tuesday With Teri

Note the pretty yellow haze...

It is Pollen Mania in Virginia!   The tiny yellow particles are so abundant, weather forecasters have started referring to pollen as precipitation.   It seems like only a matter of time before we will need to start shoveling it like snow.  Okay, so I’m exaggerating a tad….but not much.  Every vehicle has become a blurry version of its original color.  Red cars appear orange, black cars look slightly brown and green cars have an alien like glow to them.   Last week many people took advantage of the warm weather and dutifully washed their cars.  Gas stations with car wash services saw an increase in business.  Our church enjoyed a very successful car wash/fundraiser last weekend.  All of the pollen removal efforts I witnessed were only momentary victories.  It was as if the trees themselves cried out, “Resistance is futile!”  Within days all things cleared of pollen were soon recoated with the delicate dusty debris.  My poor husband washed decking, deck furniture, his car and boat! (Thought I’d let you know that so he gets credit for effort, since you would NEVER know it by looking at any of those objects.)   

Sometimes, no matter how hard you work to get something clean, it just won’t stay that way.   Countless times I have driven my just washed car to work, only to find a gooey, globular gift deposited on it by the local bird population.  I have days like that too.  I try to clean myself up.  I seek God with all my heart.  Try to be disciplined in my quiet time.  I desire to hunger for His word and be obedient.  I try to please Him.  I attempt to serve Him and honor Him with my choices.  But, alas, I will find myself severely lacking.  It is so easy to get caught up in the day, discouraged or distracted.  My selfish tendencies and sin nature just resettles on my heart like the persistent pollen.  I so get the apostle Paul when he said in Romans 7:19 “For the good that I wish, I do not do; but I practice the very evil I do not wish” .  I find comfort in knowing the grace of my God is enough for all my weakness and His love is great.  “But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive in Christ”! Ephesians 2:4-5

 I know the rain will arrive soon.  No doubt I’ll complain about the inconvenience of it when it does.  I know the pollen will wash away, as it always does, leaving little yellow rivers flowing down my driveway.   I also know when I bring my sins before my God He will forgive me, they will flow from me like rivers and I will be given the grace to start the new day.

(I was tempted to write on the pollen coated window pictured above, but felt less than qualified after seeing the work of this guy.   His name is Scott Wade.  Although he currently specializes in dirt on cars, I think his work would show well on cars in this area.  Check it out.  www.dirtycarart.com )