This photo was taken on Hwy. 89, heading north, just past the junction of Hwy. 160… Flying by at 60 mph…
It’s a corn field on the Navajo reservation. Sorry it’s so blurry… But it is clear enough that you can see the individual clusters of corn plants growing.
There are no water lines to the field… no way to irrigate. Hauling water is, at best, not worth the effort. All the tender of the garden has to rely on is rainfall… In the middle of the desert.
One has to believe that when the seeds are planted, they will break through the earth and grow. There can be no doubt, or it would be pointless endeavor. Then after the tender shoots appear, one must truly believe that life giving water will be given to sustain the growth of the corn.
It may not look like much now, but in a month or so it will be providing nourishing sustenance for the ones who walked by faith all summer to see it through.
It is no easy thing to do, this walking by faith and not by sight… We always want to see the end result before the beginning of something we attempt to do. It is hard to begin an unknown… something that we can’t see… We tend to be frozen in time while we stand to the side and idle.
There are certain promises that have been made to the people of the earth by the Long Life Happiness One that can make the journey a lot more relaxing…
“A seed cannot become a ear of corn until it first dies and is buried, then it returns a hundred fold”
This promise tells me many things. First of all, it is an action phrase. Meaning that something has to be done. And if those things are done, the other things will occur.
Planting… Watering… Harvesting… Two out of the three are the things that we do. The third is where the faith thing comes into be.
See it is the Long Life Happiness One Whose Ways Are Beautiful that brings the water, and causes the sun to shine… That’s the hard part… having faith enough to put into action something that you have no idea about the result…
Dry land farming in my mind has got to be the most faith testing endeavor that one could do… Faith to last you through the winter…
Just a little further down the road, this little house… Nothing to do with the cornfield… Just thought it was another lesson about building your house of stone… but that’s another day…
These photos depict a way of life that says a lot about the people that live it… Your whole existence depends upon faith in action… Easy to see that if you don’t work you don’t eat… but that work is done with faith and beauty… And the whole process brings to fruition the circle of life…
Live, love, work, play, and walk in beauty…
I am what I am
Life itself, and the representation of corn as life, takes constant faith.
ReplyDeleteGreat post, faith and believing is so important. Diane
ReplyDeleteYou are a computer wizz kid my friend!! I have not worked out how to do that "connect" thing. LOL!!
ReplyDeleteI can realate to that seed, I first had to die in order to live. Great post Mike.
Ah, I have the Scripture, we live by faith and not by sight above my stove. (When I first arrived I'd forget to turn the gas mains off much to hubby's frustration) This verse has me remembering EVERY time. Amen. And yes, I had to die too, (to self)to enable me to live. Bless you my friend. Jo
ReplyDeleteMike: Neat post with some interesting reflection on faith.
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