It is winter…
So the farmer and I sit inside…
Sit at his kitchen table while he tells the story…
Of the land he farms and the people who have owned it…
Mary lived down the road all her life…
Her dad farmed until he died.
Then Mary and her sons farmed the land…
Until she got older and her sons moved away.
She payed the farmer to plant and harvest and fertilize…
He even started paying her bills and taking care of her.
Mary died.
The farmer felt like her son…
Felt like the land was his land…
But of course the land was left to her real sons…
And her real sons sold the land…
Sold it to somebody who payed more money than the farmer could afford…
He farms other acres…
Acres he owns…
Acres he rents…
He pauses as he tells the story…
Walks over to his computer…
Watches grain prices falling…
Shakes his head…
“You can’t count on grain prices,” he says.
He chuckles…
“Someday I’ll be gone…”
“But the land is what will last forever.”
“Land is on the list of things eternal …”
“Maybe my boys will farm it.”
“Maybe they’ll sell it.”
“I don’t know.”
“But the land will still be here.”
“Sometimes,” he says, “I think the land is the only thing I can count on.”
I nod my head in agreement…
Thinking about what seems to be the truth of his words…
Thinking about things eternal …
Remembering that neither the earth…
Nor the heavens will last forever …
…Heaven and earth will pass away… Mark 13:31
For Orly God is eternal…
Of old you laid the foundation of the earth, and the heavens are the work of your hands. They will perish, but you will remain; they will all wear out like a garment. You will change them like a robe, and they will pass away, but you are the same, and your years have no end. Psalm 102:25-27
