The word reminds me of a song that I learned long ago during the summer that I was privileged to attend a youth summer camp. This past week ended the summer camp experience this year for many kids and summer camp workers. One of the songs I remember learning during my turn at camp was one called "My Hat It Has Three Corners". This silly song was always sung several times and each time one word was left out and the motion for that word was made. This continued until most of the song was motions and actions with just a few words being sung and it always ended with laughter as many would get confused as the song was sung faster and faster with each verse.
We have corners in our homes that collect things that need attention. Our garden has corners and also has corners within the corners. We have a fenced area to keep the chickens from feasting on things we want for ourselves. And the fenced area has 4 corners. This week I enjoyed watching a small flycatcher bird perching on one of the corner posts. It would fly away in a swoop, catch a bug, and then right back to its corner post perch. This happened repeatedly until it must have had its stomach full of bugs. What a special little creature God provided for me to enjoy as I was within the fence with its four corners. And it was being so helpful during my enjoyment. God helps us in small ways that we might not notice unless we stop and pay attention. And those corners that need attention? God does not want them to be ignored. They need attention to improve the quality of life--God wants us to be clean and uncluttered so that we have more time to spend with Him.
Another area of our garden has another 4 corners. These corners mark the area that is the corn patch. These corners have provided moments of stress at various times, each stress coming after a storm. First one corner was blown down, then another, and then another. It is never nice to see your garden corn not standing upright as it should. But good news, God has designed corn to want to stand upright. And slowly each of the corners of corn that were down, have turned back up even though you can still see a bend in the stalk. They have healed. And we are hoping for no more storms. The remaining undamaged corner does not need to heal from yet another storm. The good news is that God has also provided ways for us to heal from the storms of life. He is waiting to heal us and help us stand upright again, even though storms of life bend us and seem to nearly destroy us.
I thought about all the different kinds of corners that we think about from time to time--
a tight corner, hairpin corner, Amen corner, back/paint somebody/yourself into a corner, be boxed into a corner, be cornered catty-corner, kitty-cornered, corner the market, cut corners, turn a corner, the four corners of the earth, from all corners of the world, have (someone or an animal) cornered, in your corner, in a tight corner, just around the corner, right around the corner, out of the corner of your eye...... So many corners. Many of them are not corners that we want to be in and some we need help to get out of.
I will never forget the first hairpin corner that I experienced. My father hired a jeep and driver to take us on a "jeep" ride up to the top of a peak in the Black Hills called Harney Peak. None of us had ever been on a road/trail quite like that one. In places the hairpin turns were so tight that the driver had to back up and hang part of the jeep off the edge of the mountain road in order to maneuver around the corner. It was an unforgettable "experience."
Still, we made it safely. We had an excellent driver guide. God also is there to help us maneuver around the tight places that we can get ourselves into. He is our Guide. He has been there before and knows the way and the how in order to get us home safely and around the corner.
My mother had a favorite "corner" phrase--she often talked about things being 'catty-cornered'! That meant that nothing was going right. Some days are catty-cornered for me. And I want to just go back to bed. But God doesn't want us to throw away our time. With Him in control, we don't need to give up. He is there to help us rescue each day and find a way to learn and grow from our troubles. He is our cornerstone. He supports us and keeps us in line and stable. He is there to help keep us in line and not bent and deformed permanently. He is there to help us stay upright in our daily lives.
We might have scars and get in tight places and nothing seems to go right, still He can find the corner that is for us a safe corner. A place we can flee to for safety and to contemplate His goodness--as we stand in the corner found guilty. He is here to find and care for His special people that are found in the four corners of the earth, to harvest them for His kingdom. I am ready for the harvest, and for no more storms to bend and knock us about. But I also am so glad that He rescues me when I get in a tight corner, when I try to cut corners in my relationship with Him, when I feel boxed in a corner with no way to get out, He is there with a rescue rope. His coming to rescue is just right around the corner. Will you join me in the Amen Corner? He will save and rescue His people from the four corners of the earth!
