lOVING OUR NEIGHBORS
What I Love About Bill
By Julie Ferwerda
CBN.com –
When we moved into our new neighborhood, I immediately
noticed the yard at the beginning of the street. The house was
fine but that yard! It looked just like a giant junkyard…or
a little city dump all its own. I wasn’t sure if I was supposed
to drop off my trash there every week or to offer a bulldozer.
To be honest, I was embarrassed to have anyone I knew drive by
that house on their way to my house. So…I told them to go
the “back way.” I didn’t want them to think
that I lived in a house on a street next to a junkyard.
As the months went by, and I hurried by the house on my daily
prayer walks, I noticed that something was happening
with “the yard.” I wasn’t sure what yet, but
the guy who lived at the demolition site was outside working on
his junk piles.
Bout time he cleans it up! I thought to myself. Even
though I wanted to avoid him, I decided the “Christian”
thing to do would be to say something nice to him. At least I
could say hello as I went by. After all, I was out on a prayer
walk….trying to be spiritual. Would God even hear me if
I ignored my strange neighbor? It’s not like I would have
to associate with him or anything, just be sorta nice.
“Hello.” I stopped one morning to watch him weed
around his “flower bed”—the one located between
a strangely organized pile of old Christmas trees and a “collection”
of plastic five gallon buckets.
“Hi.” The guy looked up from what he was doing.
“I’m Julie—your neighbor down…down the
street.” The one with nothing in the yard, I wanted
to add.
“I’m Bill.” He went back to working.
Hmph! So much for trying to be friendly! He was basically telling
me to get lost. Here I was, lowering my standards to talk to him,
and he didn’t even appreciate it! Not only was Bill messy,
he was rude and ungrateful too!
As the months passed, I was getting frustrated. There didn’t
seem to be much improvement over at Bill’s place, if any.
I admit there was a lot to do, so it could take awhile to actually
see results, but time had passed—I was getting closer to
a walker and dentures every day. At this rate I wouldn’t
be able to get out by the time Bill finished his yard. But still
Bill was out there evenings and weekends, working in his yard,
and I was getting tired of waiting to see results. After all the
sacrifices I had made to live on the same street, I don’t
think I was asking too much.
And then one spring day, I finally saw something change! Coming
down the road from an empty lot on our street, I saw Bill carrying
one of his many five gallon buckets. He was headed straight for
his yard. I’m a curious person by nature, and I did want
to know what this mystery man was up to, so I slowed down my pace
and watched, exchanging a polite hello as he walked by. Peeking
into his bucket, I noticed it was full of sand and pebbles. Hmm?
Now I was really curious. Well…okay, nosy might have been
a little more accurate. I had to know what Bill was going to do
with that bucket full of dirt.
At the risk of Bill figuring out that I was checking up on him,
I waited a few minutes and then turned around so that I could
walk by his house again. What I saw when I got there was profoundly
inspiring. Bill was taking little scoops of the dirt and pebbles,
and arranging them on his driveway! Huh?? (most effectively
voiced in your best Scooby Doo impersonation).
It was then that I began to look around his yard and I noticed
something I had never seen before. The old Christmas trees stockpiled
from the last five years? They were lined up in a neat row. The
old rusty car radiators? They formed a circle. The car doors—all
the windows down, were laying on their sides facing the same direction.
Everywhere I looked, the same thing. Piles and piles of junk and
debris—all arranged and organized into
artistic expressions of creativity. This wasn’t a trash
heap! This was a masterpiece!! I finally saw. I finally understood.
Bill had lovingly and carefully placed each random piece of “decoration”
by hand in his yard. It must have taken years!
After that, a sort of pride came over me…pride that I had
the chance to know someone as unique and dedicated as Bill. I
felt honored and a bit ashamed of the judgments I had made earlier.
In a split second Bill’s yard was suddenly very beautiful
to me. You see, I know far too many people who have no passion—no
dedication to anything in particular. They are sort of just going
through each day, not really committed to anything that will change
the world around them.
But not Bill. Bill has something that many of us only wished
we had. In fact, if I had half the dedication that Bill has to
anything productive in my life, I could see big changes. If I
treated my faith the way Bill treats his yard, working at things
like sharing the gospel with my friends and spending time in the
Word consistently, little by little, the evidence of my faith
would stand out to others around me, just like Bill’s yard
is the first thing you see when you drive by!
So as I said, that day, something changed. I changed. And now
you know what I love about Bill. I want to be more like him. And
these days, I tell all my friends to come the front way
to my house. When they comment on “that guy’s house
down the street” I cut them off and say, “Yeah, isn’t
that an amazing work of art?” They just look at me funny
and wonder.
Julie Ferwerda lives happily with her husband of four years,
Steve, in central Wyoming. For more information see www.JulieFerwerda.com.
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