Combine dating

Ok-so it is harvest time and for some strange reason us farm wives become "farming widows" until the grain bins are full. Our men are out there all day and most of the night working SO hard to gather in the crops before winter settles in. 3 generations out there-all working together. Fathers showing sons how to work-no matter what age they are. 100+ years, this farm has been in the family. It's a living heritage. A living tradition. Something to be cherished. But it leaves little "us" time when things get busy. That is when we have to get resourceful.

Therefore, COMBINE DATING is a must at our place and one of the many perks of being a farm wife. (Hey, not everyone goes on a date in a John Deere with a cute farm boy.)We have a good time... Just the 2 of us. I know I have his undivided attention-and he has mine. He is in an enclosed cab-and unless there is a breakdown-he will stay there until the field is finished or another more pressing matter...(like the cattle getting loose)happens to occur. Ah, sweet time alone. Time to laugh-time to talk about things that matter-time to plan-time to dream-time to connect as a team. We are in this thing called family...building a life, and we do it together.

A few days ago-we had another lunch date in the combine. Camera in hand-sacked lunches-cell phones and I was ready. Little did I know how profound the ride would become. God speaks in the most amazing ways.


If you have never ridden in a combine. It is somewhat loud and dusty-but really fun to watch the machine rip the ears off the stalk and separate the kernels from the cob. It is a violent happening-it's quick. Before the end of the field, it was time to load the grain cart.

That's when I saw it. In plain view, on top of the combine snout. 2 ears of corn. Somehow, they had managed to fall off of the stalk and avoid their untimely dismembering by hanging out on top by the snout guards.

Sure there were some kernels missing-they had been banged up a bit-part of the husks had been worn off from being battered in the harvest. But how beautiful was the golden color that was exposed. A thing of value sat there-safely, I might add. Those ears had bounced along through the field while thousands of stalks on either side of them were being chopped off at the root and fed into a mechanical system that stripped off everything of value. Not them.

It occurred to me as I was watching this sweet little phenomenon that there were 3 of us in the cab that day. One speaking sweet things in my ear-just like he always does on a combine date. Yet simultaneously another One whispering sweet things to my heart. You are safe sweet one...regardless of what is happening around you. Listen to my song and find peace again.

"But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, so that the surpassing greatness of the power WILL BE OF GOD and not from ourselves; we were afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not despairing; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying about in the body the dying of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body." ~ 2 Corinthians 4:7-10