Back to the Farm

I have grown to have a lot of respect for farmers. I believe that their value to society is grossly underestimated. Now that I have taken up farming on a very small scale, I realize that it is not for the faint of heart as it is risky and can be depressing and distressing. Every morning, I woke up to see another plant eaten. Once, I sprayed a cabbage plant which had big, beautiful leaves and the next morning, a big portion of one of the leaves was gone. I examined the leaves and took off whatever was on them before spraying them. Then I went to plant some potato slips and transplant lettuce. It was maybe an hour before I went back to look at the plant, and another part of the leaf was eaten. Yet again, I was distraught. Nothing seemed to stop whatever this creature is from devouring the efforts of my labor.

What advantage does man have in all his work which he does under the sun? Ecclesiastes 1:3

I have the same question as King Solomon.  I have spent hours in the sun weeding, tilling the ground, moving rocks, planting, watering and spraying the plants with organic homemade pesticides, but many times it all seems to be in vain. I often wonder if I will eat anything from what I have planted. I feel like I am experiencing the effects of Adam’s curse.

Cursed is the ground because of you; In toil you will eat of it all the days of your life. “Both thorns and thistles it shall grow for you; And you will eat the plants of the field; By the sweat of your face you will eat bread, till you return to the ground, because from it you were taken; For you are dust, and to dust you shall return.” Genesis 3:17-19

I am sure sweating, and I think Adam had it better as I am not sure if I will eat any produce because the pests may believe that I have planted for them to eat and not for me and my family. I feel like I am in a losing battle. I am trying to say the battle is the Lord’s, but I am starting to believe He may have led me to plant these vegetables to feed the insects He created. Caterpillars are classified under Kingdom Animalia and these animals are enjoying the kingdom a lot. I feel like I am the slave and they are the king and I am serving them up a tasty meal against my will. God may be using me to take care of them.

Look at the birds of the air, that they do not sow, nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not worth much more than they? Matthew 6:26

If I am worth more than a bird, why is God making me sow with the uncertainty of reaping? This makes no sense to me. But God does have an upside-down kingdom.  Isn’t life just like this? Some of you may feel like me at times that whatever you are trying to do is not working. King Solomon said that he had seen all the things that were done under the sun and have found everything to be futile, a pursuit of the wind. My plants that I have doused with spray are being scorched under the sun, and the wind also has done some destruction. Many days I wonder if there is any meaning to this.

“Meaningless! Meaningless!” says the Teacher. “Utterly meaningless! Everything is meaningless.” Ecclesiastes 1:2 (NIV)

I have been praying and pondering about what is happening with all the farming I am doing, I am now understanding that God had been protecting the plants and my labor without me realizing it even though I thought He was doing the opposite. If the rains had not come to immediately wash off what I had sprayed when there was no rain in the forecast, I would have done a lot of damage to the leaves. I have enough white spots on the leaves from the homemade sprays to realize that the damage done by them would have been much worse than the damage done by the pests. What I thought was God being harsh was actually His mercy. Also, the spray bottle I bought was not working as I thought it would so I couldn’t get it to spray equally over the leaves. Thank God for that because the leaves would have been all white, bleached from my homemade sprays and I would have lost nearly everything. I recently made a neem oil mixture to spray and miraculously the spray bottle started working better than I thought it would after nearly three weeks. Again, the goodness of God prevailed. I sprayed the neem oil mixture and there was no rain to wash it off immediately. And it seems there are no leaves eaten. What a mighty God!  Now I have hope again that I may be able to harvest a crop from what I have planted. And I have learned that I may be going through a difficult time and I may blame God for it knowing that He is in control and could stop all the challenges I am facing, but those problems may be His miraculous protection and education because He knows so much more than I do and He sees the bigger picture. I had to go back to the farm to relearn this lesson.