A Holy Partership

When I was a boy and asked that eternal question asked to all children, "What do you want to be when you grow up?"  my first remembered response was, "I want to be a farmer."  In a manner somewhat like the Hebrew people who wandered in the wilderness for forty years before getting to the promised land, it took me forty years to get to the farm.  And, to be truthful even after living on the farm for thirteen years and doing farm stuff, I hesitate to call myself a farmer.  It seems to me that I am not worthy of such a title when there are so many hard working, crop producing, farmers all around me.    

Yet, here I am as I have been now for awhile tending pecan trees, growing bermuda grass for hay, and working a small herd of cows.  I have learned to do stuff I never imagined doing while working from the pulpit.  One of the surprising things has been the sense of satisfaction and fulfillment that comes with the moment of harvesting a crop.  The first time I had this new feeling was back in the beginning when we left the farm with a pickup truck bed full of pecans to sell at the market and the most recent time was yesterday when the bales of hay came rolling out of the hay baler and were left to grace the field like some mysterious holy icon that suddenly appeared.    

I have come to enjoy and find meaning in this partnership with the creation and the Creator.  No matter how much I do the right stuff to grow a crop, I have come to understand that His is the final Word.   The creation is filled with things like rain, sunshine, and wind which help bring the harvest and things like army worms, disease, and drought which hinders it.  It is God's creation.  I am just a small cog in that eternal wheel.  Psalm 104:14 says, "You cause the grass to grow for the cattle, and plants for people to use, to bring forth food from the earth..."   I am grateful to have a small part in this holy partnership with the Creator.