You find many treasures in the spring ~ April 24, 1997

David Heiller

Spring has a way of uncovering lost treasures although sometimes you have to help her. Take my folding saw, for instance. Cindy bought it for me last Christmas. I had wanted one for a long time. I could use it to prune trees and to cut firewood on camping trips. A folding saw would be real handy, I figured.

I talked about the need for a folding saw for a couple years. Cindy finally got tired of that, so she bought me one. It was my favorite gift.

One of the functions of a spouse is to buy things like folding saws. That should be a marriage vow.

PASTOR: Do you promise to love, honor, and buy handy things for your husband?

BRIDE: I do!

I started using the folding saw right away, to cut branches and small trees on our snowshoe trails in the woods. It worked great. The teeth were razor sharp.

But it was a bit awkward to carry. I tried putting it in my pocket, but it was too big for that, so I put it in my fanny pack.

Then one day in the woods, in the middle of February, the saw fell out of my fanny pack. I looked and looked for it. I knew the general vicinity where it fell. But when you drop something in three feet of snow, it’s hard to find, and I couldn’t.

Losing that saw was hard. I had to tell Cindy that her great gift was gone. She was sad, not so much about the loss of the saw, but because she would have to put up with another two years of me saying, “Gee, I wish I wouldn’t have lost that saw. I really liked it. I could have used it for a lot of things. Sure could use a new one.”

Last week I took a walk in the woods to find the saw. The snow was pretty much gone. What a treat to be walking on bare ground again.

I walked over the trail once, and didn’t find it, so I doubled back, and then the saw just jumped out at me, plain as day, on the matted leaves of the forest floor.

Those first spring days outside,
you just never can tell what will turn up.

Wow, that’s a nice feeling. The prodigal saw had returned. The handle was weathered, and the blade had rust spots. But those were surface blemishes. That saw was as good as new.

When I got home, I casually mentioned to Cindy, “Oh by the way, I found my saw in the woods.” She could see through that smoke screen of nonchalance. She was happy for me, and for herself.

Another minor miracle occurred on Saturday. Cindy had lost a weeding tool last year. It was her favorite tool. I gave it to her, by the way. I took the same marriage vow she did, although; I don’t always live up to it.

She didn’t know what happened to it. That’s often the way people lose things. You set something down, you get distracted and walk away, you forget about it for a while, and then when you go to use it again, you wonder where the heck that darn tool is.

It is hard to imagine what kind of distraction
could cause a person to leave a tool behind...

“It’ll show up some day,” I told her. They always do. And sure enough, last Saturday Cindy was cleaning out a flower bed, and she saw a stick buried in the dirt, and pulled it up, and it was the handle of her prodigal weeder.

It made her day, and mine too, because now I don’t have to listen to her talk about that great weeder she had, the one that was just perfect, and did such a good job, and wouldn’t it be nice to get another one like it.

Other treasures are turning up these days. Some aren’t so pleasant, like dead squirrels and the calling cards of our two dogs. Three wagon loads of organic debris were taken to our woods on Saturday.

But under it were irises and anemones, hollyhocks and delphiniums, tulips and poppies, and many other flowers that are nameless and beautiful.

They are all green and growing. Is there a prettier sight than seeing a mass of green shoots coming from a flower bed?

Spring has many treasures that once were lost but now are found again.