“And on the 8th day, God looked down on His planned paradise and said, ‘I need a caretaker.’ So God made a farmer. -Paul Harvey
God made farmers then...and He’s making farmers now.
Because there’s something about people that live close to the earth...
He sits there - mostly every morning. His lanky form hunched over his Bible, squinting at the print under the glow of the fluorescent lights from the grow shelves in our dining room now-turned-plant-nursery.
Where has time gone?
Wasn’t it just yesterday we were both kids arguing over Legos and building Indian forts in the woods?
Wasn’t it just yesterday we were grumbling over math problems and stuck with our noses to history books?
Wasn’t it just yesterday we traveled about the country with the parents and grandparents camping, exploring?
Wasn’t it just yesterday we lived in Mexico, days full of Spanish and music?
And then the blur happened. I moved to California and he to Tennessee. Places and people that have forever changed our lives.
Time seemingly brought us full circle. Back in the house of our childhood antics, childhood grievances, childhood joys and dreams.
But this time...he’s a farmer. He’s a boy-man pushing out of his teens into the world beyond.
He’s a boy-man wrestling with nature and God.
I watch him tear the ground, water the ground, prepare, plant, cultivate, harvest the ground.
I hear him at night talking with friends, praying with friends, fighting side by side for the grace and the glory and the character of God.
Not only does the farmer grow the ground - the ground grows the farmer. Right here. Right now.
Today...19 years into the making.
And I smile and I’m thankful and I'm humbled.
So God made a farmer...Happy Birthday Alan.
