TGIF
The official plant of hell is the foxtail.
In case you don’t have it where you live, it’s a grass that produces sharp barbs which burrow into the flesh of animals as they walk through it.
Animals like my cat, Miss Kitty.
With each movement she makes the barbs travel farther and dig deeper.
Twice a day (at least) she comes walking in the house looking like a porcupine and I spend the next hour carefully trying to remove them from her long fur.
In a way it’s become a bonding process for us as it hurts when I remove them…fur is often ripped out with Satan’s flowers.
She has to trust that I’m doing something to help her, not to cause her more pain, though that is often the temporary result.
Our bond was put to the test this morning…I awoke to her sitting in my chair waiting for me to rise.
A foxtail seed had lodged in her eye and the eye had swollen shut around it.
It looked excruciatingly painful and it was.
The smallest of wings was still attached to the seed…if she would let me I’d have one shot to pull the thing out.
She would either trust me and let me try to remove it…or claw me to shreds for trying.
To my amazement, she stoically stood up and looked straight at me…and I plucked the seed from her eye.
She purred some thanks while cleaning the gunk from her eye with her paw.
Two things I learned this morning…
The world is like a field full of foxtails and as we go through it many barbs afflict us…some fall off, some burrow down and cause constant pain.
Sometimes we need someone else to remove them for us…we can neither see them, nor reach them, but we can surely feel them.
Thank God for those who you can trust and who love you enough to try to remove them.
The second thing is sometimes those barbs stick in a place so sensitive that only the Master can remove them.
Everyone can see the barb and the wound, but the risk is too great to remove it.
It has to come out.
The wound has to heal lest you lose vision and perhaps even life.
It takes great trust to allow Him to work.
Do it anyway, even if it causes temporary pain.
He loves you even more than I love my cat…consider it a bonding process.
You can be healed…
Make your own application…
Thanks….. Still praying for you.
Thank you, gomergirl!
that cat!
it is humbling to find that God is using a cat to so effectively get his points (sorry) across to us
Michael, this is about the best one yet! i’m thinking of the verse about the foolishness of preaching and what God’s uses to “confound the wise” of this world
So tough when the road to healing demands a degree of pain. And sometimes we have to back and face up the very thing that hurt us.
Foxtails and ticks are a dog’s worst friend.
@ #4
It’s so true that weaker things in life are brimming with lessons for the supposed strong.
If we are willing to listen.
My handicapped son is so helpful in this way I may get a PhD.
Thank you Michael.
As a kid foxtails were everywhere and I always had them in my socks. I hated them! 🙂
God bless you.
Amen! Thank you Michael for reminding me. The most difficult thing for me to do is accept God’s healing. Father’s Day is approaching and it has been a difficult day for me for 25 years.
Great stuff from everyone today…thanks to all.
Paul, the Apostle, prayed three times that his foxtail be removed, yet God had a plan, a purpose, and peace to guard. How I wish my thorn was removable, but as you shared recently, the body will surround and a scar will form. Grace and peace will prevail in time.
Fox tails are much more gnarly in game/outdoors dogs. The can enter through the ear or between the toes…blood stream……dead dog. Guy at the dog park had his dog taken to the vet for raspy hacking. Had one removed from his dogs throat that had worked deeper.
Took a 2×4 to the fence at the dog park and pushed all the fox tail weed over growth off the fence line so the dogs can’t pick at it. Evidently dogs like green seeds…..
Amen, fil…
This thread reminds me why I keep showing up here. Thanks to all.
That foxtail is a punk… the goat-head will impale you.
Love this, Michael.
Agree with Dread…the goat-head even looks like the devil:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tribulus_terrestris#/media/File:Trte_003_lhp.jpg
hmmm… goatheads and foxtails… more object lessons ?
goatheads are like sins that are obvious, while foxtails are like evil, more insidious and more lethal… i had a Springer Spaniel as a kid that ran up quite a vet bill as SJ noted, one of those foxtails had worked its way from the pad of his foot up inside his leg and had to be surgically removed and treated for infection
I too grew up with Springer Spaniels and they were constantly going to the vet to have fox tails removed from either their ears or between their toes. Even though my dad always checked them after a run in a field.
LOL…our Goldendoodle went to the vet yesterday for foxtails up in his paw. Four of them! We were taught the lesson to always check up on him for foxtails daily or they will burrow deeper. Kind of like us confessing our sin to the Lord.
Absolutely agree with BD. Goat heads are way more devilish than a fox tail.
no, London, the devil is subtle and works his way in and creates a festering wound that you don’t even see until it has to be surgically removed lol
how is Miss Kitty’s eye doing now? she does trust Michael – oh how i wish i was that smart about my God
I just finished cleaning her up…she’s feeling a lot better. 😉
So good. Thank you….. Glad Miss Kitty is doing better…..
Michael you do such a great job with these …
Thanks BD…thanks all.
My hope is that these mini homilies encourage folks to keep their head up.
God is good.
Goodnight and have a great weekend, folks.