So God Made a Farmer–My Version

I could never write as eloquently as the late, great Paul Harvey. But if I could add a few things to his “So God Made a Farmer” speech, this is how it would go:

God said, “I need someone who will spend hours working a field, planting a crop, tending that crop, praying over that crop, only to watch it get completely destroyed by a hail storm. And then turn around and do it all over again the next year.”
So God made a Farmer

God said, “I need someone who will invest their savings into buying cattle. Someone who will care for those animals like family, feeding, watering, moving them to fresh grass, and tending to them when they are sick. Someone who will spend hours upon hours helping them calve, sometimes pulling calves with their bare hands, waking up every 3 hours through the night to check on them, and bringing them into their own house to warm up and get a bottle of milk when the mama cow doesn’t know how to mother them, only to lose many of those cows and calves to sickness, lightning, or injury or the perils of calving. And then to do it all over again the next year.”
So God made a Farmer.

God said, “I need someone who will care for the land and the waters of the Earth, even though it’s a thankless job.”
So God made a Farmer

God said, “I need someone who can work from before sunup till after sundown, seven days a week, 365 days of the year, while still attending school functions for the kids, kissing his wife, making it to church, and doing it all without complaining.”
So God made a Farmer

God said, “I need someone who is willing to sacrifice his time and energy to growing food to feed the world, working his hands to the bone, rarely receiving a “thank you,” and being strong enough to shoulder half the world accusing him of trying to kill them with his chosen farming or cattle-raising methods.”
So God made a Farmer

God said, “I need someone who can go further and further into debt each year, stretching the grocery and household budget as far as they possibly can, willing to settle for hand-me-down clothes for the kids, go without fancy things or worldly travels, someone willing to teach their kids the value of people and relationships and hard work over the value of Earthly possessions, and someone willing to remain optimistic year after year despite all of these things. “
So God made a Farmer (and a Farmer’s Wife)

And then God said, “I need this person to be someone who can choke back the tears and thank me for their blessings, even when times are hard.”
So God made a Farmer (and a Farmer’s Wife)