Isaiah 52:7-10; Psalm 98; Hebrews 1:1-12; John 1:1-14
Once upon a time there was a man who had it all. He had a good wife and wonderful children. He owned a small, but very productive farm which grew all sorts of vegetables. On the edge of the beautiful farm he had planted fruit trees which grew wonderful fruit almost every year. In the woods nearby were deer and turkey and rabbits which came down to the farm, but the farmer was an excellent shot so his family always had meat to eat. A stream ran through the farm in which there lived many fish. And the farmer’s neat house was warm and cozy in the winter, because he worked hard and everything was kept in good repair.
One day, the farmer was talking to himself and he said, “You know, I’ve got a good life. I’ve worked hard and my farm is in excellent shape. I think I’ll build myself a swing for the back porch where I can look over the farm I built.” And the farmer did just that. And for the rest of that summer and fall, in the evening after he finished his work, the farmer and his wife would sit on that back porch swing and swing.
Winter came and it snowed. That cold and snowy Christmas night, the wind began to howl, and from the back porch a thumping sound came. The farmer thought: “I hope my swing isn’t destroyed by the wind blowing it away.” So the farmer quietly got out of bed without waking his wife, and went outside where the swing was thrashing wildly back and forth. As the farmer reached for it, the wind shifted, the farmer slipped just a bit on some ice, the swing hit him in the head and the farmer went down, knocked out cold.
Hours passed before his wife found him in the grey light of morning. Some of the farmer’s hair was still stuck in the wood of the swing, the swing had hit him so hard. The fingers on the farmer’s right hand were frost-bit. The next day they turned black, and within a few days it was clear that they had to be amputated. The doctor was sent for and the operation done. All that winter the farmer recovered, but now he had no fingers on his right hand, which was his strong hand.
That year was terrible. The farmer’s wife and children did what they could to help out, but they just couldn’t do what the farmer had done. Weeds were growing in the vegetables and some rabbits and deer managed to eat some of the vegetables. The fruit trees, which were not properly pruned that winter, didn’t bear properly. That year, the harvest was only about half what it normally was, and the house began to have some leaks in the roof and some wind came through some cracks in the walls.
A traveling minister came through in December of that year, after the harvest time, when the snow was just beginning to fall. The minister stopped at many people’s homes and God led him to stop and spend the night at the farmer’s house on Christmas Eve. That night, in front of the fireplace, the farmer told the minister his story, choking back tears. “Why is God so angry at me?” the farmer wanted to know. “I worked hard, I did everything I was supposed to do, I took care of my family, and now everything is falling to pieces!”
This question bothered the minister. Being a wise man, he didn’t answer right away, but asked the farmer to let him think on it and pray on it, and he promised the man an answer in the morning. The farmer agreed and went to bed. The minister, though, he stayed up most of the night in front of the fire, reading his Bible and praying for an answer.
Eventually, after reading many scriptures, the minister came to Psalm 98 where he read:
Sing to the Lord a new song,
for he has done marvelous things;
his right hand and his holy arm
have worked salvation for him.
The minister had his answer. And he slept soundly the rest of the night.
The next morning, when the farmer came down for breakfast, the minister was waiting for him. “I’ve found your answer”, the minister said.
“Yes, what is it?” the farmer asked.
“I listened to you last night. You talked to me for hours about how nice your farm was, how prosperous you’d been, and how hard you worked. But in all that time, not once did you give the credit to God for your success. You never mentioned the times God sent you rain and the times God sent you sunshine. You never mentioned that God always sent you deer when your family needed venison, or fish when they were hungry for fish. You never mentioned that God had kept blights and mildews away from your plants and your fruits and that God had protected your farm from storms and tornados. Yet as soon as something bad happened to you, your first tendency is to blame God. But listen to this Scripture from the Gospel of John:
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind.
“The Word is Jesus Christ.”
“You’re so right”, the farmer said, hanging his head. “I always thought it was myself and my hard work that made this farm prosperous. But God was there with me all along. It was through Jesus that everything was made. He brings life to this farm and everything else.”
“Yes, you’ve got it. Sometimes God knocks us on the head to get our attention. Now listen to this from Psalm 98”, the minister said.
“Sing to the Lord a new song,
for he has done marvelous things;
his right hand and his holy arm
have worked salvation for him.
“God can replace your right hand, if you will but ask Him.” The minister said confidently. “Why don’t we pray?”
The farmer and the minister got on their knees and prayed long and hard that day. They prayed that God would forgive the farmer of his sin of ignoring God’s goodness. They thanked God for thumping the farmer on the head with the swing. And they prayed that that farmer would receive Christ into his heart that Christmas morning.
Every day after that the farmer began his day by reading His Bible, giving God his thanks when things went well, and asking God for help and guidance when things did not go well. And to the neighbors, it was as though the farmer had replaced the fingers on his hand, for between the farmer, his good wife, his growing children, and God’s blessings, the farm prospered even more than it had before.
Later that winter, after the minister had gone walking west over the mountains to help other souls, the farmer read in Isaiah 52:
How beautiful on the mountains
are the feet of those who bring good news,
who proclaim peace,
who bring good tidings,
who proclaim salvation,
who say to Zion,
“Your God reigns!”
And so whenever a neighbor or traveler stopped by, as the farmer and the visitor ate delicious fruits, vegetables, and venison from that prosperous farm, the farmer had the visitor sit on the back porch on the porch swing with him. There, he pointed out a bit of old hair caught in the wood on that old swing, and then told the story of his farm and how Christ had come to that farmer on Christmas.
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