Wednesday, March 25, 2009

Farming is For the Birds??

A few months ago, my husband and I were driving over the bridge to our house and looked over at the heap of corn that had just been brought in during corn harvest. Now normally, this would be no big deal except for this time the entire "corn mountain" was covered with little birds. I mean completely covered!! Hundreds and Hundreds of little birds covered this entire huge pile of corn. There were hundreds of birds flying in the air trying to get their turn as well. My first thought was...ooh gross, hope that isn't the corn that is going to be used for cornflakes!! But as we were driving away I thought...oh man God's word is so cool...he's using man's hands to feed the birds. So farming really is "for the birds"...but more from a provision standpoint. I wish I would have had a camera with me that day so I could fully illustrate this point.

Farming corn takes a lot of work. My grandfather was a farmer and so I have first hand knowledge at all the time, work and preparations that go into producing an acre of corn. I rode with my grandfather as we plowed the field getting it ready for planting. I got to watch the planter put the corn into the ground and rode with my grandfather as he turned the irrigation sprinklers on and off. I watched tiny grains of corn turn into huge giants. I used to get out sometimes when we were checking the fields and walk into the forest of corn...until a dumb horror movie came out about Nebraska and cornfields and I never entered a cornfield again! I also have ridden in a combine and watched the huge stalks of corn turn into a huge truckload of golden grains of profit!! I have watched as the corn was taken from the truck and loaded into the grain bins for drying and/or feeding to the cattle. I rode in the truck when we took it to the Coop to sell it as well. I know full well how much work goes into it. As an adult, even though I do not live or work on a farm, I look at what it costs to farm as well because the cost eventually trickles down to the final product sitting on my table.

So knowing the work that goes into corn made me realize how God uses the hard work of the farmer to feed even the birds. As the economic crisis pours into the midst of my own family, I have to continually meditate on God's word:

Matthew 6:25 "For this reason I say to you, do not be worried about your life, as to what you will eat or what you will drink; nor for your body, as to what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? "Look at the birds of the air, that they do not sow, nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not worth much more than they? And who of you by being worried can add a single hour to to his life?"

So why worry....if God will feed the birds...he will take care of EVERY one of my needs!!

Saw this really cool video that kind of went with my blog entry today:

2 comments:

Railroad Wife said...

What a lovely meditation! I saw your note on my blog about your husband finishing engineer school. Congrats! I hope he is able to stay off of the furlough board. It's not a fun place to be. Your meditation about the birds was much needed here today. Thanks for reminding me about His watchful eye and providing hand.

The Home School Princess said...

Thank you so much Railroad Wife, for your kind and loving words. Unfortunately, my husband is now on the furlough board here at Union Pacific. The day I wrote this message was the day I found out that he was being moved to the Layoff board. I sat down and wrote this to remind me not to fret and not to worry. Even though I've tried so hard to meditate on this message from God, even today I broke down in tears fearing that we could lose everything including our house if things do not get better. To my Railroad sister, I will keep your family in my heart, thoughts and prayers as we both fight through these really hard times. I still believe that God is going to provide no matter what that may be and I just need to keep meditating on that to keep going every day. Blessings, Sheri