Amongst the Fields

 My July column from our monthly newsletter. -RW

I don’t usually  consider road construction a blessing. But, as the saying goes, the Lord works in mysterious ways, and I think I’ve found an unexpected blessing!

The bridge across I-29 at the Joliette exit is being rebuilt this summer. You cannot  cross I-29 at all. In order to get to some places, I’ve had to head for a favorite territory: the fields.

Don’t worry —  I haven’t been driving in the fields.  Just  the county roads that go amongst the fields.

These roads send you forth into  wide expanses of corn, grains and beets presently bursting with life.  It won’t be long before these fields remind us of that phrase from “America, the Beautiful,” “amber waves of grain” and time again to harvest.

Against all of this life is the contrast of death and rebirth: Though life brims over the fields, we also harvest.  Mowers, swathers and balers are making their mark in pastures and ditches, as the hay is cut and set aside for feeding livestock. 

I always experience a deep sense of peace and God’s presence amongst the fields. Perhaps this comes from being so close to the soil, where the never-still energy of God’s creation is always apparent.

My Celtic heritage has a term for places where God’s presence seems especially close — “thin places.” These “thin places” are where the division between earthly and eternal are especially “thin,” and you can more readily sense the Holy. 

The fields are one of these “thin” places for me.  In the “happenings” of the fields,  the cycle of life takes place: birth, growth, death, and resurrection.  God is very present in the fields.

I’ve been thinking and praying amongst the fields about our  preparations for a new chapter of life in the United Methodist churches of the Upper Valley. 

This is an uncertain time.  Many ask, “Where is God taking us?  What will it be like when we ’arrive?’  What if I don’t like the destination?  What if I choose not to move forward?”

It has occurred to me more than once amongst the fields that God has provided us direction for finding some of the answers we seek, in those very fields.

As I noted earlier, we’re growing crops and harvesting other crops at the same time.  Doesn’t this sound like our lives?  We harvest what was planted before us, and we seed and grow new life for those who follow us — sometimes all at once!

This all reflects God’s never-ending cycle of provision for His children.  In it we find completion; in it, we have a part to play.

What’s especially important is that we don’t forget to plant as we harvest.  If we only harvest, there will be nothing left for those who will succeed us.

Now, in a time of change, God calls us onward.  As we have been living on the harvest planted by those who faithfully planted before us, we now must faithfully continue with new plantings and growth.

Future generations depend on what we plant so they too can harvest in their own time! 

What part is God calling you to play in this work? What is your response?