God and the Scarecrow (Elena Huegel, Chile)
We had agreed to fix up the yard together. Acsa, the nursing student who lives at the Gathering Point with me, wanted a small herb garden, and I wanted to get rid of the weeds and prepare a compost bin.
We had agreed to fix up the yard together. Acsa, the nursing student who lives at the Gathering Point with me, wanted a small herb garden, and I wanted to get rid of the weeds and prepare a compost bin. We went to the garden store together and decided on a big trash can for the compost, lugged two big bags of mulch, and picked out baby mint, oregano, cilantro and ruda plants. In the corner of the garden store, there were cute little handmade scarecrows crafted on pointed sticks to place in the garden. “Let’s take a scarecrow!” Acsa begged. “No,” I said firmly. “We are already over our budget.” For the next couple of weeks, Acsa kept reminding me of the scarecrow as we worked on the yard and garden. “Wouldn’t a little scarecrow look fun here?” she cajoled trying to convince me. It reminded me of Dr. Seuss’s Green Eggs and Ham: “I do not like them, Sam-I-am. I do not like green eggs and ham!”
On a bitter winter evening last week, the smoke from the wood burning fireplaces covered the streets of our neighborhood with a foggy blanket making it dark early. The doorbell rang. When I answered, I faced a middle age lady shivering in the cold, lips blue in spite of a scarf. “I have kitchen towels for sale,” she offered. “No thanks,” I answered, “We don’t need any today.” “Wait,” she exclaimed when I began to shut the door. “I also have these cute little handmade scarecrows for sale.” As I paid for the scarecrow, the lady’s face lit up. It was her last sale of the day, now she could go home and feed her children. A little later, Asca came home from the university and was overjoyed! “You bought the scarecrow for me!”
I am not sure why a scarecrow for our garden was so important that God had to send one directly to my door, but I guess that is the mysterious way God has of preparing a blessing long before we are aware of it ourselves. The street vendor was blessed, Acsa was blessed, and I was blessed by their joyous reception of the blessing. “Thank you! Thank you, Sam-I-am!”
Elena Huegel, a member of Iglesia Cristiana Ebenezer, Los Fresnos, Texas, serves the Pentecostal Church of Chile (IPC). She is an environmental and Christian education specialist.