We had some good old fashion breaking of the tenth commandment going on at our house this summer. No it wasn’t my neighbor’s house I was after. Or his wife. Or his babysitter, donkey or cow. Nope. It was his lawn sprinkler.
While I darted this way and that soaking myself as I changed my sprinkler locations every 45 minutes, he just laid out a long string of hose and turned his sprinkler on. One trip, maybe two and the whole yard was done. It was a beautiful yellow tractor. The kind that follows the water hose until it reaches a shut off device. And I wanted it.
Okay, I know what you’re thinking. Yes, I could have purchased my way out of this sin. But we had spent less than $20 collectively on our collection sprinklers. And we’re fundamentally cheap at heart. Sixty dollars for a lawn sprinkler? Not from this family’s pocketbook! So the sin flourished.
Until that wonderful day this fall, that is, when Joelyn called me at work to announce that she had squashed our sin, set us on the straight and narrow. She had purchased our very own yellow lawn sprinkler tractor at closeout prices at Wal-Mart.
I couldn’t wait to get home. The timing was perfect. We had just overseeded the lawn. And now I had a sprinkler that would cover it all without me doing a thing.
I quickly assembled the tractor, laid out a most amazing pathway of hoses, turned on the faucet and set back to enjoy my evening and night sprinkler-changing free. The life of luxury had finally arrived at the Tucker house.
But my sprinkler ran away.
Somewhere in the night it jumped the track and proddingly headed to my neighbor’s yard … dragging my 225’ of carefully laid-out hose behind it. What an insult! What an outrage! What an irresponsible, inconsiderate sprinkler. What a sight at 3 a.m. Me in my PJs dragging my runaway sprinkler and its tethered hoses back home. And, of course, getting soaked in the process.
We read the instruction manual for breakfast devotions the next morning. And then examined our hoses. You see if you really want to keep a shiny yellow sprinkler on track, you should use 5/8th inch hoses, the instructions say. And sure enough, 100 feet of my maze was with ½” hose. At a tight turn it hadn’t kept my new tractor connected enough to stay at home.
A bit like life I suppose. Staying sort of connected to God – a ½” connection if you will – looks good, feels good and seems good. Maybe like keeping nine of the 10 Commandments. But when that tight turn or corner comes, it’s pretty easy to jump the track and run off in our own direction. Without purpose. Without guidance. Without law. And without the joy, comfort, peace and purpose that comes from a 5/8ths connection with God.
I strolled over and looked at my neighbor Jeff’s hoses yesterday. Now those are some nice hoses. I think I need them.
Check that. I think I need a 5/8th inch connection.