The Farmer's Grace

I recently heard a story about a visiting pastor invited to a men’s breakfast in the middle of a rural farming area. The group asked an older farmer, decked out in bib overalls, to say grace before they all dug in.

“Lord, I hate buttermilk,” the old fellow began. The pastor opened an eye to glance at him, wondering where this might be going.

“Lord, I hate lard!” the farmer loudly proclaimed. Now the pastor was growing concerned.

“And Lord, you know I don't much care for raw flour,” he went on, without missing a beat.

The pastor once again opened an eye to peer around the room, and noticed many of the other men shifting in their seats uncomfortably.

“But Lord,” the farmer added, “when you mix them all together and bake them, I do love them warm fresh biscuits.

“So Lord, when things come up that we don't like, when life gets hard, when we don't understand what you're saying to us, help us to just relax and wait until you are done mixing and baking. It will probably be even better than biscuits. Amen.”

How about that for great, down-to-earth wisdom worth considering when it comes to complicated situations?

While we find ourselves in a mix-up of so many things we don't, like the farmer, ‘really care for’, as we pray, trust and believe surely—as surely as God is God—something good will result.

We can’t know when or how, but “we [do] know that all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose” (Rom. 8:28).