Churned Soil

For weeks during the early spring, the farmer kept a small herd of cows in a couple of linked fields which we pass every day on our walk. We watched (well, I don’t suppose Dusty was really watching ...) the heavy hooves of the beasts churn up the saturated field. We watched them grazing on grass which fast disappeared, pulled up by its roots by tongues and teeth of hungry animals. The once fertile field transformed into a quagmire with little of nourishment to man or beast.

So the farmer moved the cows out. There was a brief spell of a couple of horses enjoying the spaciousness of the field, but there wasn’t much left for them to eat either.

He’s now ploughed it up. I’m no farmer, so I don’t know the names of all the tools his tractor dragged over the ground, but gradually he got out the weeds and stones, transformed the mud clumps into fine tilth, added fertilizer and then sowed the grass seed.

This morning, after several warm and sunny days, there is a green shadow coming over the brown dirt as the seed sprouts and begins to grow. New life.

There’s a sense in which our lives become like the early form of that field. We are trampled by other people, by events, just by doing life. Others feed off of us and even pull some of our best bits out by the roots. We end up feeling on the inside like that quagmire, churned and trampled and devoured, and have nothing much left to give.

I think we’re all like that, whether or not we like to admit it. Because then we try to remediate the soil of our souls with all sorts of additives and seeds. Maybe we think physical activity will restore us. Or we delve deep into intellectual pursuits. Or we go into any number of substances looking for restoration and finding only desolation. 

If we are aware of our spiritual dimension (which we all have), we seek solace and restoration in anything from crystals and cards to yoga or mindfulness or meditation. Somehow it’s just not trendy to look to the Almighty God for peace and wholeness, and yet he is the one who loves us all so much he sent his only son to die for us so we could be restored to him. 

Easter is all about new beginnings, second or seventy-second chances, love, forgiveness, and peace. We’re approaching the day of Pentecost next Sunday and that signals the sprouting of new life in believers ever since the Holy Spirit came in power, signified by tongues of fire, on the disciples gathered together mourning their lost leader. But more of that later...