Agriculture: So God Made a Farmer

On the eighth day, God looked down on his planned paradise and said, "I need a caretaker." So, God made a farmer.

God said, I need somebody willing to get up before dawn, milk cows, work all day in the fields, milk cows again, eat supper and then go to town and stay past midnight at a meeting of the Farm Bureau. So, God made a farmer.

God said, I need somebody willing to sit up all night with a new born colt and watch it die and then dry his eyes and say maybe next year. So, God made a farmer.

God said, I need somebody strong enough to clear trees and heave bales, and yet gentle enough to wean lambs and pigs and tend the pink combed pullets. And who will stop his mower for an hour to splint the broken leg of a meadowlark. So, God made a farmer.

It had to be somebody who would plow deep and straight and not cut corners. Somebody to seed, weed, feed, breed, and rake and disc and plow and plant and tie the fleece and strain the milk and replenish the self-feeder and finish a hard weeks work with a five mile drive to church. Somebody who would bale a family together with the soft strong bonds of sharing. So, God made a farmer.

excerpt: Paul Harvey, 1978