"Bob Wire"

 I know we gotta have it,

To keep the cattle in,

But I hate the lifelong habit,

Of it scratching my old skin.

And Lord knows I pay attention,

When I’m stretching that old wire,

But I can’t fail to mention,

That it snags me like a briar.

And, yes, I wear my work gloves,

When I’m usin’ my fence pliers,

I lose my peace from up above,

When it sets my skin on fire.

It’s scratched me new and shiny,

Right off a spool I bought,

Don’t mean to sound so whiny,

But oft my skin it’s caught.

It’s cut me when it’s rusty,

Scratched a brand new pair of boots,

 Filled my mouth with cusswords,

Worse than mercy dern and shoots.

I’ve seen it cut good horses,

That took some time to heal,

Used up a vet’s resources,

No question that’s the deal.

Bob wire has its uses,

And I know it has to be,

But I’ll give you no excuses,

It has been a curse to me.

I decided with our fences,

On this Texas place we bought,

No matter the expenses,

There’s no bob wire to be fought.

“…there was given me a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of satan to torment me. Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But He said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’” (2 Corinthians 12:7-9, NIV)

Whatever Paul’s “thorn in the flesh” was, we know he wanted to get rid of it. Why? It stuck him! But in this case God said no. It’s a wonderful thing when the thing that “sticks” you goes away. And sometime that’s exactly what happens. But sometimes God says He is not going to remove it, but He’s going to give you grace to deal with it. And the good news is that His grace is always enough. Even when we are the weakest, the grace becomes stronger and stronger. It happened that way with Paul, and it can happen that way with us, too.

Lord, remove the thorn or give us grace to deal with it, in Jesus’ name.

Personal photo of my most recent bob wire scratch.