Kiddies and Them Thorns Do Hurt

Around noon time...
I fill a couple of buckets up with water and take them down to the goats

the kiddies are growing ever so fast

and soon we will come around to milking mama Snowflake

we have her and the kids by the cocoa orchard which is also above the big garden...

so we need to keep mama on a tether so we don't lose our crops

in spite of all the wild bush for them to eat...

goats will lunch voraciously on both cocoa leaves and anything in the gardens

as you can see, these twins enjoy being together

brother is the one on the right with the longer horns

sister enjoys using him for a pillow

*****

We have quite a few citrus trees on our homestead...

and all the ones we deliberately planted have no thorns...

as they were cultivated from grafted trees

but, there are a few that grew from seeds that were thrown down...

from fruit eaten and had grown on their own

these have thorns

there are two citrus trees with thorns that grow at the corners of the chicken coop...

and if I had it my way, they would be hacked down...

but, right now, the citrus trees are full of fruits

the two thorny trees are grapefruit and I'm itching to get my hands on the fruit...
just as soon as they are ripe enough

because they sit so close to the coop...

I must maneuver around them carefully

I didn't learn to do that well enough, until after a few scratches on my arms...

I finally one day bumped my head against the tip of one of those 2 inch thorns

that was several days ago and it still hurts

instead of taking the trees down while they fruit...

I took pruning clippers and snipped off the thorns on the trunks...

and wherever they were a danger...

and pruned off any thorny overhang at my head level

now, the trunks are smooth and bare of thorns...

and that has helped tremendously

the first thought that came to mind when that thorn met my head...

was to take a machete to the tree

the second thought was a crown of thorns of over two thousand years ago

one thorn was plenty hurtful...

a whole crown of thorns could only be torture

that crown of thorns from long ago was worn by the Savior who willingly...

wore it to set me free from sin, darkness and wrath

and as hateful men set that crown of thorns on the Lord Jesus...

I know that my Christ's loving thoughts were on me

But he was wounded for our transgressions,
he was bruised for our iniquities:
the chastisement of our peace was upon him;
and with his stripes we are healed.
Isaiah 53:5

May your day or night find grace in the Lord.