A Display of Holiness

Cleveland is not really likely to produce children who are familiar with farming life unless you live in the more rural suburbs. My experience with planting and harvesting was confined to the garden my dad always put out in the back yard. I can easily remember picking strawberries, shucking corn, and breaking beans. But, that was the extent of my exposure to farming.

Ron and I have been living in his boyhood home in Willard now for our third summer. It's been interesting to watch the farmers cycle their land: one year corn, the next beans, then wheat, and then the cycle of crops begin again. Now that we've experienced all three crops across the street and behind our house, I've decided that wheat is my favorite … in fact, it amazes me totally!

We live in a windy spot. If the weather predicts winds at 10 mph, we'll have winds at least 25 mph. I've never seen wind whip like it does right here. But there's an upside to the windy spot we call home and it's found in the wheat fields.

Have you ever sat and watched the wind ripple through the golden grain? Literally ripple! It is incredible! At times I sit here and imagine the presence of God almost dancing across the tips of the wheat stalks. A gentle blowing of His Spirit. A tender display of His gentleness. The wheat like the streets of gold graced by the whisper of His voice, the breath of His nostrils, the brush of his footsteps. What a picture … what a display of holiness I see in wheat!

Sometimes it is as if I see the Lord rippling through the land just like wind through the wheat, testing each kernel to see whether it is true wheat or darnel. He touches each one, tests each one, allows each one to sense His presence and choose whether or not to respond. It's such a beautiful picture to see the wheat humbly bow as the wind of His presence brushes over the fields.

This week the farmer began to cut the wheat in the field behind our house. Rows of wheat piled in perfect lines waiting for the bailing process to begin. The next day the bailer began to work, picking up the wheat stalks, pressing them to conform to the shape of a perfect rectangle bale held together with rope. As this process ensued, I looked out over the field and nearly gasped. The beauty of order. The field freshly groomed with bales of hay staggered throughout produced a not-so-orderly order that truly inspired me.

The bales were like congregations of saints, tied together in separate bales yet they were from the same field, they all bore the same qualities. Each stalk of wheat had been tenderly graced by the gentle wind of God's presence. But they had no choice with whom they were baled … that was beyond the wheat's immediate control. But they conformed and they added their offering to that of others to produce a perfectly-formed bale.

Being the silly nut I am, I grabbed my camera and began taking pictures. Most wouldn't understand the beauty of a freshly mown field of wheat, but I couldn't resist the invitation to capture the essence of beauty created by the Master Planter and Harvester Himself.

I'll have to post a couple pictures later and pray that God will continue to speak to me through the wheat fields. There's always a story beyond that which is seen with the natural eyes if we'll open our spiritual eyes and see.

© 2008 Jan Ross
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