it takes a village

Before

After

When we bought this house it had pine tree in the front yard. It was a Charlie Brown Christmas kind of pine tree, lopsided and ugly. It was also perfectly lined up with my front door so anyone who came to my house couldn't help but think that this hideous little tree was there on purpose. We have been planning to remove it since the moment we saw it but we are in the infancy of learning how to be handy and the whole thing was a quite daunting. Last time some of the elders from church came to visit they asked, as they were leaving, " Is there anything we can do for you?" as they always do. I have never answered this question with anything but a polite, "Oh no, we're fine, thank you." Not that day. " You could help us figure out how to rip out that tree in the front yard, does anyone in the ward have a truck or anything?" Silence. And then, action. Discussion on possibilities continued for a few moments and then they left. I have to be honest, I really didn't think we would ever hear about it again, You know, best intentions and all. This was last November just before snow fell. Last Sunday one these nice men pulled me aside to inform me that they would be over on Saturday to remove my tree. I was ecstatic and shocked that they had remembered and followed through on such an esoteric, every day sort of a thing. Saturday morning three men showed up and set to work getting rid of my tree without even knocking on the door-luckily I saw them through the window or they would have done it without us. In less than thirty minutes they had the tree out and chain-sawed into small, easily disposed of pieces. My husband is less active and I regularly struggle with my faith but I was so impressed that these men who barely know us would go to so much trouble to help us with something so unimportant to anyone else. They asked for no compensation or recognition of any kind. Regardless of my questions and concerns, that is the kind of Christian I want my children to associate with, that is the kind of Christian I want to be.