Hedges

Hedges

I was staying with my farming friends in Banbury recently. They showed me a fascinating book published by RSPB, the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, about farm management. It included a section on hedges.

I dare say hedges are something I've taken for granted over the years. They are just there – you only notice them when they are gone. I had often wondered what the point of them was any way. I think I've learned over the years that without hedges, fields are very exposed, and can be windswept and vulnerable. But apart from that … well, what other purposes do these things serve?

The RSPB book opened my eyes. Hedges perform many useful functions at the service of nature. One of the most important is to provide safe highways along which birds, insects and small animals can travel, protected from the gaze of predators that might otherwise prey upon them. These little creatures can pick their way from one destination to another quite readily by relying on the cover that the branches of the hedges provide.

This reminds me of the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. As a contemporary song puts it,

"For He made us a way by which we have been saved, He’s the Saviour of the world".

The Lord Jesus described Himself as the Way as well as the Truth and the Life. He provided a way through to the presence of God, who would otherwise be inaccessible to ordinary people. This is symbolised by an incident during the time He hung on the cross.

Two extraordinary events took place during the last hours. Darkness came over the whole land and the curtain which blocked off the inner sanctum of the Jerusalem Temple was torn in two. The writer of the letter to the Hebrews mentions this incident and comments,

“Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful” (Hebrews 10:19-23 ESV).

By means of Jesus, we are furnished with a clear and safe way forward in our spiritual lives. Where predators lurk, the Lord Jesus protects. He reminds us of the right path to follow when our spiritual enemy strives to lead us into the superficially attractive route heading the wrong way.

We may be glad that the Lord Jesus set Himself up as the true and living Way. There are many ways to self-fulfilment offered to us nowadays: ways leading to bodily health, ways to well-being, ways to self-gratification. They can’t all be right.

Like a hedge, Jesus appears at times like a narrow corridor between broad and fertile fields. But woe betide the small creature that steps outside the cover of the hedge! Follow the hedge and you make progress towards where you can flourish. Trapped in the talons of a bird of prey, you are heading nowhere but doom.

Jesus, the narrow corridor, leads to life. We should take with both hands the opportunity He offers.