Farms

Lilies of the Field

/ pastorpete51 / Leave a comment

Matthew 6:28 And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin.

If you are like me maybe you been doing more some worrying off and on during this pandemic. We wonder if our family members will get sick or what is going to happen to our nation. We worry about going to the grocery store and wonder when we can go to church again.

The people listening to Jesus were not so much different than us. They had plenty of their own troubles – like corrupt government officials extorting them for money – the threat of getting leprosy that could put you in social isolation for life and a strict religious system that might get you kicked out of the synagogue for even listening to Jesus. So Jesus didn’t just say; “Don’t worry; Be happy!” Instead He talked about lilies. These weren’t the lilies we associate with Easter or the garden lilies we are familiar with but were flowers that grew wild in the fields of Galilee.

That kind of blossom reminds me of the wild flowers in the farm fields. Generally they were unnoticed while the hay was tall since they grew in the shade of the taller grass. But once the fields were mown and the hay made into bales their tiny yellow, purple and red blossoms put on quite a show. My job being to stack the bales I got the delight of a great view of them from my perch high atop the hay wagon as we road we back to the barn.

Since Jesus said to consider flowers as a stress reliever I thought that today it might be fun to just share some flower photos from my morning walks. Have a blessed and unworried day safe on the top of God’s hay wagon as he steers us slowly back to His barn!

Silly Goose!

/ pastorpete51 / 1 Comment

 Because of the privilege and authority God has given me, I give each of you this warning: Don’t think you are better than you really are. Be honest in your evaluation of yourselves, measuring yourselves by the faith God has given us. Romans 12:3

As a teen-ager I lived on a small farm for about two years. Every day I had pigs to slop, cows to milk, chickens to feed and even a couple of goats to tend. But of all the animals we had on the farm the ones I liked the least were the geese. Yes some mornings the cow could be ill- tempered, the pigs were smelly, and the chickens needed constant protection from the local raccoon but the annoying thing about geese is how they acted like they were better than any of the other animals on the farm.

photo of white goose

Photo by Annari du Plessis on Pexels.com

Whenever I approached to feed them they would stick out their necks and hiss and flap their wings in a phony show of courage. But if I took a few steps toward them, they would turn tail and run as fast as their clumsy webbed feet could carry them.  No matter how much they hissed, flapped or ran they never really convinced anyone of their importance. In fact one of my favorite things on the fourth of July was to shoot bottle rockets close to those geese and then laugh uproariously as they hissed and honked –  (Remember I was a teen-ager!) 

But before feeling so smug about how foolish those geese were I need to ask myself about the  times when to God I must have looked a lot like those geese. He sees me put on a great show of bravery and self-importance for my family, neighbors, or church; but when faced with real danger I have often run for the hills. How amazing that God still loves me and doesn’t treat me like I sometimes treated our poor silly geese. Instead He gently corrects me and tells me to remember that my importance isn’t about being better than others. No one is better than anyone else in God’s family. We are all loved and are each given a different job to do. So let’s not act like silly geese. Yes, God has made us special –  but not better than anyone else on the farm! 

 

When Lightning Strikes

/ pastorpete51 / 1 Comment

He covers his hands with the lightning and commands it to strike the mark.                     Job 36:32 ESV

Having worked another long day outside with temperatures flirting with one hundred degrees, we were enjoying the little bit of rain that the breeze wafted our way as we sat on the front porch. Then that wonderful stillness was interrupted by the horrible crash of a thunderbolt that landed just a few yards away on the other side of the dirt road. We sat in shock for a moment and then we started laughing in relief as the geese over in the cow pasture honked in loud and angry protest.

brown and beige wooden barn surrounded with brown grasses under thunderclouds

Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

The terrible thing about lightning is that it wakes us up to just how vulnerable we are. Car accidents, break-ins, doctor’s reports and family crisis hit at times when we least expect. But the hope that our scripture today gives is that God is ultimately in control. He holds the power of the lightning in His hands and He is the one who commands where it will strike.

God knows not only when and where the lightning will strike but even when each sparrow falls. He has marked His calendar for how long our life on earth is to be. So we must decide if we will honk in angry protest when thunder crashes all around or we can rejoice in God’s mercy and grace. He loved us so much that He sent Jesus to die in our place so we can praise the one who will keep us safe in every storm!