What Are They Thinking?

This picture was captured from our bedroom window. Next to us are two vacant lots. I was told there was a home out there in the middle that burned to the ground in the 70's, I think it was. I once saw a picture of the house that was taken sometime around 1900. The house was very large and, though we are in the middle of downtown four or five blocks from city hall, the setting looked rural. The fire disfigured the trees around the house. There is a tree, a fallen sentinel, laying on the ground that fell when the tornadoes swept the state a couple of weeks ago.

It appears there have been no useful thoughts on these lots for many years. Time is taking it's toll. I think the current owners are a little indecisive as to their plans. They may just be thinking in terms of "Maximizing Profit". They bought low and now with increasing development...who knows? It is a free country and that is their right if so it be.

This area must be a battleground of sorts where ideas have fallen. I look upon this ground and see many dead and dying ideas. So it sits and waits for someone with a sound idea to come along and make it into something; some sound idea to make this place into something of value that provides shelter, security and hospitality. If I were that piece of ground I would want to be handsome and useful for good folks. I would be the ground their lives are planted upon.

I believe thought backed with faith is how anything comes to be. I realize I desire to acquire these two lots. I think I will create a park with a fountain and swings and benches and green grass and trees. I will put in a sidewalk and lamps and beds with pleasant landscaping that will bloom from beginning to end of the growing season. There will be couples strolling arm in arm. Young people will toss Frisbees and strum guitars. Children will run and play and scream with delight. Older folks will walk their dogs and meet to gossip and talk about painting projects needing done. I will watch out for the wolves and the bears and the lions that threaten as I am called to do as a man and father. I will maintain it as a park until the neighborhood is developed and further progress demands something more needful on this ground. I desire to bring new life to this ground now. That is restoration, too.