a great privilege

Recently, as I was eagerly beginning to work again in the garden after the long, cold winter, I felt overwhelmed by the privilege of being married to a farmer's daughter. To be able to live on acres of land and to contribute to being a caretaker and "husband" of the land is truly a special honor that I don't take lightly and am learning to treasure more and more. My upbringing, which was typical of many American upbringings, saw gardening as a nice hobby with healthy side benefits. But with God's help I have come to see that working with the land is vastly more than a mere hobby or healthy past-time. In the Scriptures, the garden is not just the beginning point in God's relationship with man; throughout the Bible, references are made to Israel being a "vineyard", or God's people "the garden of His delight." It is a place of intimacy, where Jesus himself is called "the vine" and his father is the "vinedresser", and we are the "branches". The Bible ends with references to a tree (or trees) on both sides of the river that is flowing from the throne of God, which bears fruit continually and whose leaves provide healing for the nations. I believe these are more than just metaphors, but are representations of what actually will one day be a tangible reality. God created us as physical beings who are meant to partake of heaven and earth simultaneously. Our destiny is not heaven, but rather a "new earth" where the physical dimension will continue, only in a greater and more enhanced form.

So what's my point? I feel like a wealthy, incredibly blessed person to be able to live on a farm with acres and acres of land to manage. Only the enemy of our souls could invent a lie that says working with the soil is a dirty profession without any real dignity, best reserved for the lower classes. In my book, nothing could be further from the truth. The bulk of the greatest saints in Scripture lived very close to the earth. They were people who loved doing "dirty" things like tediously planting vineyards, helping a ewe out with a difficult birth, etc., etc. It was the exception, not the rule, for an occasional saint to be in what we would today call "white collar" work. But even those few "white collar" saints would have gotten those collars dirty because it was common for priests or scribes to still have their own garden and grow most of their own food.
It wasn't too terribly long ago when most Americans grew a lot of their own food too - at least those who lived in rural area. But nowadays it is an increasingly rare sight, even in the country, to see a large portion of people's yards devoted to raising food or growing herbs and flowers. Growing money has replaced growing gardens. This is a tragedy on so many levels, not the least of which, is our very relationship with God. Man invented making money, but only God could invent gardening. I would encourage you to rediscover - and keep rediscovering - our Creator's creation.