The price we pay for the beauty of new leaves on our naked trees…beautiful spring flowers and the glorious spring we all crave after gray, bleak winters. I went outside Tuesday morning after the rain this past Monday and my white car was still yellow. I should have put it in the garage, but that didn’t happen. 

I started thinking about how we don’t usually “see” the pollen when it is flying around in the air. But when it settles on vehicles…sidewalks…pavement…it looks ominous. How could that much pollen be in the air and we don’t realize it?

Now those with allergies know when they have been outside. If it is invisible, it certainly isn’t powerless. Noses run. Sinuses fill up. Heads ache. Even some have body aches. How does something so small create so much suffering?

It is an irritant. It causes inflammation. Our bodies react to something entering it that doesn’t belong there. If it isn’t toxic, it certainly isn’t healthy.

Which took me to these thoughts. How often do we expose our hearts and spirits to something small, maybe even innocent looking, only to find our heart and spirit “inflamed”…”irritated”? We are still praying, reading the Word, attending church…but we are “off”. Something is standing between us and the One we love.

Reading through the Bible each year, we find ourselves in the Old Testament right now. Somewhere around Joshua or Judges. Through the first five books of the Bible, we hear Moses and Joshua repeatedly tell the nation of Israel to “put away their idols”. Really? They are walking with God and still have idols hidden away in their tents?

After all the mighty miracles Abba God had done, they are still carrying around idols they brought from Egypt, or picked up from nations they fought against on the way to the Promised Land? 

I must make myself remember…I might not see the danger…it might be “small”…But nothing is “small” when we are speaking of our relationship with Abba. I can’t put myself in a place that looks harmless and yet is questionable. I can’t skip a day confessing my sin. I can’t be disobedient when He asks me to do something. I can’t “bend” His Law to suit my circumstances. I can’t hide idols away in the closet of my life. Anything small or large that separates me from Him is harmful…irritating…can make me “spirit-sick”…

And Yeshua came to bring shalom…complete peace, health, and healing.