The Promised Land

We received a couple of inches of snow and a few days later I discovered what I can only describe as mini crop-circles in the still-to-be-landscaped backyard. The tracks, approximately 6 feet in diameter, were in a tight circle; too small and wide for a bicycle track, and absent of any footprints. The next day the elementary-age boys across the street appeared at the backdoor with their remote-controlled trucks and ask permission to pile what snow they could find on the three-foot mounds of dirt to make a slide for their snow boards. I can see why the boys are attracted to our desolate dirt lot because their own home is surrounded with a boring driveway, sidewalk, grass and shrubs. I’m reminded of Moses, who prepared the Israelites to enter the promised land, but because he had been disobedient, God would not allow him to enter the with the Israelites. Moses, who desperately wanted to go into the promised land, pleaded with the Lord, but the Lord was angry, “That is enough,” the LORD said. “Do not speak to me anymore about this matter. Go up to the top of Pisgah and look west and north and south and east. Look at the land with your own eyes, since you are not going to cross this Jordan. But commission Joshua, and encourage and strengthen him, for he will lead this people across and will cause them to inherit the land that you will see.” (Deut 3:26b–28 NIV).