Outdoor Truths

This time of year, I begin earnestly getting ready for the upcoming deer season. It's the hottest time of the year, but one has no choice if he is to be ready for the end of September. Checking, moving, and setting tree stands will always be a necessary evil, but the longer process involves getting my little food plot planted so it flourishes during the crucial part of the season. It not only needs to be plush during the early fall, but it needs to be able to provide nourishment during the cold and frosty days of December and January. The key to it, besides having good soil, is to have a blend of seeds where some produce better earlier and others produce better later. But the field must be ready to take the seed. And that's why I have to start in July. I have to get rid of what's presently growing in the field, in order to be able to plant my new seed. I do it in a couple of ways. I either get the fi eld ready by using a weed killer, or simply by discing the field a few times until all the old roots are destroyed. This usually takes a few weeks to do. After that, my goal is to plant around the last week of August or the first week of September, according to the next rainfall. If I can plant a day or two before a rain, I have successfully done all I can do to have the food plot I want to have when the season comes around. (A pause for a shameless plug...I would love to speak to your men's group or at your wild game dinner) Planting and harvesting have always been part of every culture. It's no wonder Jesus used these to illustrate many of his lessons he taught. The people listening could always relate to such a common practice. They understood preparation, sowing, and reaping. They also understood how the whole process is done in partnership with a god or gods. The Jewish people looked to Yahweh for that partnership while other cultures had many gods and goddesses they looked to, to help assure them of a successful crop. What both understood was while they could do everything within their power to plant, it would take another power to bring rain and to keep away pestilence. And from the first seed to the first fruit, there would be a period of praying, waiting, and trusting. Jesus taught those who followed him that this is the same way God works in their (our) lives. It's a life-long partnership where we lean fully, in all things, upon the one who can bless and multiply the smallest seed sown in faith. And our part is to pray, wait, and trust.