I am sure that there are many things that you do once the Spring finally arrives. Maybe you put in some fresh flowers, spread the bark mulch, or give the lawn mower the first crank of the year. Since we moved into our home in Lowell five years ago every Spring has involved a rather unique ritual that I call "kicking the stumps." When we purchased our home the quarter acre yard was under a bed of snow. When we moved in the snow had melted revealing about two dozen tree stumps of various sizes that were left from when the previous owner had cleared all the trees a couple of years before. The stumps were not that big of a deal until I went to cut the lawn every week and spent a great amount of time going around stumps, trimming the grass around the stumps, and breaking at least one lawn mower blade on a stump. I used a chainsaw to cut down the ones that I could get at - did I mention that most of my yard is on about an 70 degree angle - and dug out some of the others. But, there were some that just would not budge so I left them. I noticed however that eventually the stumps would rot out or get destroyed by ants (which gets at my love/hate relationship with carpenter ants, but that is a story for another day). So every spring I go around and kick all the stumps to see which ones have rotted out, last Saturday I knocked out about six good size stumps.

The thing that amazes me about the stumps is that even after they have been cut off from the rest of the tree they still hold strong for quite some time, years even. But eventually, if I wait long enough, time, damp weather, and the ants will cause them to deteriorate. It makes me think about some people who look like Christians, but have cut themselves off from the tree of life, that is Jesus. They might be able to hold on for a while, but without the tree their grip will eventually weaken and the things of this world will eat away at their life. If we are not tied into the tree someday life may come along and give us a kick and we will just fall to pieces.