Recently Kathy and I made a short road trip to the Strawberry Plains Plantation just outside Holly Springs, now owned and operated by the Audubon Society. Actually, we were multi-tasking. I was scheduled to speak at the Blue Mountain College chapel service that Friday morning, so Kathy went with me. After the service, we changed clothes and headed back to Holly Springs. Our first stop was Philips Grocery -which is no longer a grocery store, but actually a restaurant. Well… it’s kind of a restaurant. They serve these famous hamburgers in a building across from the old train depot. It’s really hard to find and even harder to believe you would want to eat there, but that is a whole different story. It was standing room only. Anyway, after the “ambience” of Philips, we headed to the plantation to experience the annual hummingbird migration. The weather was great, the company was ideal, and the migration was pretty neat. We strolled the gardens and then took a guided wagon tour around a section of the grounds to hear how the Audubon Society was working to enhance the land making it a more suitable wildlife habitant. This is, of course, the sole purpose of this non-profit organization. Our very knowledgeable guide talked about different species of birds, insects, snakes, rodents, trees, and grasses that were a part of the plantation landscape. He explained how they all affected one another. At one point, I was ready to break into a chorus of “The Circle of Life” from Disney’s movie The Lion King. However, as I listened further, it struck me how often the things we consider pests to have a purpose in life. They may annoy us, or as in the case of snakes, scare us, but they have purpose. So it is in our walk with the Lord. There are annoyances or fears that at times seem like blight on an otherwise perfect landscape, and yet the Lord uses them. I was reminded that those beautiful blue birds that nest in my backyard every spring are dependent on those pesky mosquitoes that buzz my head every summer. Probably would not have the one without the other.

Meandering Through Marshall County,

Bro. James