Lessons as a Michigan Plowboy
I was standing behind Dad’s “walk behind” garden tractor. It was late spring, and it was time to turn the soil again.
Dad had shown me how to guide the tractor, as it pulled the plow. He had shown me much about its operation since I was a little child. In earlier years, I walked in front of Dad, reaching up, holding his hands on the handle grips, as he guided the tractor through its heaves and lurches, as it pulled implements through the soil.
Now, I was big enough to guide the tractor on my own. (My older brother, Jim, had reached this milestone about three years earlier.) Dad oversaw me, as I hitched up the plow to the implement bar. I started it on my own, as I wrapped the starter cord around the engine pulley and gave it a long, full, firm pull. Holding the handle grips, I guided the tractor onto the fallow earth of our garden.
It was a small enough plot. I plowed the entire garden area, making the same north-south rows Dad had always made. I switched to the disc, and ran that over the garden, making several passes, until the plowed earth was broken up into smaller clods.
Finally, I hooked up the harrow, with its multiple spikes, and ran that over the garden several times, in all kinds of patterns, until the soil was soft, loose, and arable. Dad insisted upon operating the cultivator, for he knew the crops he wanted to plant, and the row spacing required for each one.
After cultivating, my brother and I helped Dad to plant the seeds, each one by hand, whether it was corn, beans, carrots, radishes, or okra. Seeing the green spikes push through the earth in a few weeks was both exhilarating and daunting. It meant that summer work was at hand, in the harvest of these crops! The reward was at the dinner table!
The lessons were, “Never quit, until the job is done!” “There are long-term rewards for the short-term present labors.” “Don’t give up during the long, hot summer hours of working in the garden.”
Paul would say, “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Finally, there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give to me on that Day, and not to me only, but also to all who have loved His appearing.” (II Tim. 4:7 – 8)
Christian, don’t ever quit! Be a champion for Jesus!
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