On being a "town farmer"

Almost all of my buddies at the Wallace school lived on the farm, and I envied their acqaintance with livestock, farm machinery and crop-growing ... oh, to drive a tractor! But, as a smalltown boy in my teens I joined the local 4-H Club (heart, hands, head and health) and chose as my spring and summer project GARDENING. We had a nice garden plot north of our home, and Dad hired a local horse owner to plow it up for planting. I enjoyed laying off the rows with a hand plow and then putting the seeds and plants in due order. As things grew it was special joy to cultivate the rows and at last to start reaping fresh green onions, tomatoes, radishes, corn, etc., for Mom's table. Since we then had no power tools, all that manual labor was good for developing my muscles, which then made moving 100-lb. bags of "taters" around at Dad's store a little more bearable...maybe even impress the local girls(?)! Speaking of "taters," later on the folks added a bigger garden plot on the northwest corner of our property which we called "the truck patch," especially to grow potatoes. Yes, I learned to place the seed spuds with the sprouts UP, to facilitate early growth. Looking back, I lacked a truly Biblical understanding of God's creation and the wisdom He put into every facet, but I am glad now for the experience of being a "town farmer" and realizing that gardens and farms and people are all totally dependent upon our loving Creator/Savior! Being a child of God these many years now I can only agree with good King David: "Praise waiteth for Thee, O God, in Zion ... Thou visitest the earth, and waterest it: Thou greatly enrichest it with the river of God..." (Psalm 65:1,9) And the Apostle John completes the record of God's creative and saving power in Revelation 22:1 - "And He shewed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal out of the throne of God and of the Lamb." For the believer there's not only present, but eternal refreshment from above!