Born to be Wild!

The other day, my Gmail inbox received the below pictures!! I immediately burst out laughing and wondered where they came from. I quickly remembered that this past April, Justin and a friend stopped at a Harley Davidson store outside of Waco on the way to Austin. He asked me if I received any pictures from their adventure. I told him that I hadn't and that was kind of the end of it. Five months later...the pictures from his iPhone showed up in my inbox! Hilarious!

I really hope this is a joke! The pictures got me thinking about the way that God creates men...specifically mine. Justin is always watching shows on the Discovery Channel like Deadliest Catch, American Loggers, Dirty Jobs and Ice Road Truckers...all shows I never heard of before I met Justin. (I will say that I do like to watch Shark Week and I get really excited about it when the previews say that it's coming). When watching one of his shows, Justin will almost always make a comment like "oh, that is so awesome" or "if I didn't have any other responsibilities, I would do that for a living". I understand that those "other responsibilities" mean me...and I'm not offended.

Each time he shows interest in working on a boat in 5 degree weather to catch big giant crabs, that look like the scariest things on earth to me, I am reminded how different we are, just by our nature. You could not pay me a million dollars per crab to do that job...it would terrify me...and it terrifies me to think about Justin doing that. But something inside of him thinks that it would be "awesome" to saw down giant trees at the risk of being smashed by falling limbs or the helicopter above dropping the big trunk on him.

I think that the reason behind this difference is found in Genesis. I love Genesis...I think there is so much there that God wants us to know.

Chapter 3 verses 17-19 say:

"Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat of it all the days of your life. It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken, for dust you are and to dust you will return."

Now I know this isn't a "happy" verse...or a verse that encourages or shows God's love for us. Or does it? God loves us so much to punish us for our sin...he doesn't let us get away with it and go about our lives repeating our offenses towards him. He demands justice from us...and this curse shows justice. Lucky for us, Jesus saved us from eternally returning to dust.

I think about how hard Justin works for our family, how he looks at men who are literally sweating from their brows to earn and eat their food and he admires it. He may not literally sweat in his office, but he's working very hard, and sometimes his job produces thorns and thistles...what job doesn't? I am so grateful that Justin is wild at heart...that he works hard for our family and that his desire is to provide. I just hope he never buys chaps like that!!