Our summers were and remain so happy. Hot but happy. The garden produced large quantities of beans, tomatoes, corn, watermelon, cucumbers, squash…more vegetables than I can list. Early morning would find us in the field picking what we would process that day. After picking time, we’d head to the house to eat a late breakfast and begin the work of “putting away” food for the winter.

I think these days were so sweet to remember because we were together. After I married, we had the garden at our house. Mama would meet me in the garden about 6:00am and we would pick vegetables till about 8am. When we would get to the house Rob and Stephie would have scrambled eggs, made cereal, toast, hot tea for me and Mama. They were small but could make breakfast. It felt so special. And truly, it was.

When you shell lima beans or peas, October beans, or green peas, invariably there will be some trash in with the shelled beans…no matter how hard you try to keep it out. When you rinse and wash the beans, each time there will appear more bits of shell or leaf or whatever. Try as you might, you never get every single piece.

But not to fear. When you put those beans in the pot to blanche them, a “foam” will form on the top. And guess what? The small pieces of trash that you  missed in the washing process will come to the top in that foam. I would watch as Mama would take her large spoon and skim off that foam and with it the remaining small bits of trash.

Each year I’m reminded again and again…the “trash” that needs to be removed from my life will be. Our good and faithful Abba God turns the heat up and, “Voila” there they are. All the ugly thoughts, speech, heart issues exposed. My heart trash has “come to the top” for Abba to skim off.

When we look at the “heat” from this angle, it seems more like grace than punishment. It looks like a good and faithful Father bringing us into the likeness of His Son.

I try to remember too that our Abba doesn’t let others get away with sin. Those that steal or abuse or defraud or kill or whatever…the evil man may seem to prosper for a time…but our Abba has a day of accounting. The evil man will not prosper forever. Our Abba is patient too. He waits for that person and not just us to come to repentance.

We need not fret. Our Abba God is a good and just God. He will clean us up if we allow Him. He will have justice for those who are wronged too.

Encourages me to have short accounts with the Father…

Proverbs 25:4

Psalm 66:10

Matthew 13:24-30