Farms

The Gardener’s Calendar

/ pastorpete51 / 3 Comments 
“I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. John 15:1

Over my life, I have worked many jobs: tree climber, pastor, teacher and gardener, to name a few. Though I have spent more time on my knees pulling weeds, than in prayer, it is amazing the lessons that God has taught me there. You see, when people think of gardening, they tend to gravitate towards the more glamorous tasks, like planting and picking. And while those jobs, certainly are in the job description, these are not the only tasks involved between Spring and the Fall harvest. Since, we who are believers are God’s gardening projects, it is important to pay attention to all the jobs that our gardener has marked in His calendar!

First, there is pest control. Jesus warned that those who heard His teaching but did not allow it into their hearts would have the birds of the air come and eat it right off the top of the soil before it could grow. Some of the pests in our lives might look like – the football game that we are thinking about while pastor is finishing his sermon. Or it might be the phone call that we never return that is asking for us to help out a friend who is moving next week. “My back felt sore the last time I did that.” we think. “Why doesn’t someone else step in this time?” Whether your solution is a scarecrow or a dog who chases off the groundhogs, we need to find a way to guard God’s seed from the pests that come to steal and destroy our fruitfulness.

Next, no garden makes it through the heat of summer without irrigation. (Unless you are growing rice in a swamp). The Apostle Paul tells us, that His job had been to plant, but Apollos watered the church. If you don’t think watering is important then ask the farmer who is helplessly looking out at his field of parched corn, with no rain in the forecast. But God will send showers of His mercy. Jesus tells us in the Sermon on the Mount that God sends that rain on both the just and the unjust – and I have often been the unjust and much in need of His grace. How wonderful a Savior we have, who helps us with his merciful rain, when we need it most and deserve it least.

Then, comes God’s weeding. Isn’t it amazing how weeds grow? Even during droughts, in spite of weed barriers or even spray – they find a way to survive, and, in the process, they will strangle the tomatoes, beans or okra, that we are trying to grow. In ancient Israel, farmers didn’t get on their knees to rid a field of weeds. Instead, they simply took a torch and burned it, then reploughed and planted again. Ouch! I have had a few fires in my life. Usually, it has been after God has dealt with me and given me second and third chances about selfish choices and I have not listened. Then, in one way or another He sends a painful yet redeeming discipline. It is not God’s desire to hurt us, but He sends a firestorm to burn to the ground all that stuff we insisted we had to have, so that we would meekly accept his breaking up our fallow ground and replanting good seed in our hearts.

I have often been like a gardener in a hurry. We used to read books to our boys about a Frog and his friend Mr. Toad. In one of those stories, Frog planted a garden and the next morning he rushed out to see if it grew. Of course, there was nothing happening yet. So then, Frog watered it, sang to it and watched it closely, but still nothing. Only after a few days, when he had all but given up, was Frog amazed to wake one morning to see the new plants grow. It is the same with the harvest that we are longing for in our lives. It doesn’t happen in Spring and for some crops (think pumpkins) it doesn’t even happen in Summer. We all must patiently accept the appointed tasks that God has marked for us in His garden calendar. We have to learn His lessons about sowing with tears, pest control watering and weeding before we can come rejoicing carrying home the sheaves with the gardener of our hearts!

Good-bye Doug

/ pastorpete51 / 16 Comments

A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for adversity. Proverbs 17:17 NKJV

When the news came last week that Doug had been in a bad accident on the farm, I wondered if this might be his last. The week that he survived gave us all some time, not only to pray for him and his family but to remember this simple man’s kindness, loyalty to his friends and willingness to help. Doug didn’t read much. Besides repair manuals, the only books I think he ever read were the Boy Scout manual and the Bible. All his life, Doug had struggled with learning. His slight speech impediment also made it difficult for those who were not friends to understand all he said. But at 6 AM on Sunday mornings when the church furnace didn’t come on, Doug got the call. When someone’s car broke down and they couldn’t afford to take it to the garage, he fixed it at his house. Over the thirty plus years we knew him, Doug had rewired two of our homes, and replaced most of the plumbing in one. Doug also helped take care of the farm I managed. When the pipes leaked, the irrigation wouldn’t come on or the fields needed mowing, Doug was there.

But age wasn’t kind with our friend and after a few accidents falling asleep at the wheel, heart surgery and a fire that took out his big garage, Doug was hurting. But just as always, he assured me that he could cut the fields one more year, once he got the old tractor running again and bought 100 gallons of diesel at the crazy high prices of 2022. Then came the phone call that Doug was in intensive care, with nine broken ribs and a collapsed lung. Throughout the last week we all prayed that God would work a miracle and bring him back one more time. But it was not to be. Jesus had made other arrangements for our friend. He had a schedule to keep with the almighty and a home prepared by grace that would never need the furnace serviced. There would be fields to walk through, but never mowed. There is fresh living water that doesn’t run through pipes that freeze up in winter and a place prepared at a table.

No, my friend wasn’t perfect, but he had put His faith in a Savior who was. Despite his failings, he kept hoping to get his kids pointed back in the right direction or help out any neighbor he could. I can hardly believe I can’t call him up today or send him a thank you note for whatever work he had done lately at the farm. Goodbye Doug. May the Lord watch over us both until we meet in that city where there will be no more night, neither tears nor suffering. Thank you, Lord Jesus, for letting us have such a wonderful faithful gentle friend who will be sorely missed.

Far More Than We Deserve

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This parable of the vineyard had always held for me the mystery of sunlight shining through fog. I was sure something wonderful was there but couldn’t quite make out exactly what. I once figured that the owner of the vineyard kept retuning for more workers because he didn’t want to lose his harvest. It reminded me of working a hayfield with six of my friends till 2 am. A thunderstorm was rolling in and hay left in the field might be spoiled so we labored till the first drops of rain started falling. But the story of this man returning over and over to the town square till almost quitting time just seemed odd.

Why did he hire men even when it was almost quitting time and why pay them the same as the others? After all the guys who only worked one hour certainly weren’t producing enough to even cover their wage. But then I remembered that when the owner hired those fellows he asked why they were standing around all day and they told him ,”because no one hired us.” They had stayed because they clung to hope even as the afternoon shadows grew longer.

And isn’t that the wonderful depth of the grace of Jesus? He doesn’t come until even the final hours because he cares about hay ruined in his field or grapes left on the vine. He comes over and over looking for us. The lostness of people who no one else wants, who stand abandoned in the town square stirs God’s heart to action! So with whatever few hours we have in His field let’s work with joy, knowing that from the depths of His grace we will receive far more than we deserve on the day we stand before Him!