In the farm field driving tractor, I have the chance to notice what God has done out in the small piece of earth that He has entrusted to us.
The past few weeks have been highly devoted to baling hay. Sometimes I crimp hay, other times I rake hay. Still other times I drive tractor for the baler.
Our fields vary in their sizes and shapes.
One such field we have a trapezium in shape. A trapezium is a four-sided shape where none of the sides are parallel. Hence, one side of the field has a very long row. The other side has a short row. The row lengths vary gradually as we process the hay.
As I drove round and round on that field, I pondered the center rows. They tended to be average in length.
Average is a term that I heard as a youngster. As a student I learned that average was nice. If I was average I was similar to others. If I had average grades, I was just as smart as most other individuals in my class. Average was a “safe” place to be.
Yet as I pondered the term in the field, I noticed that the long row was noticeable. The short row, also was notable. The average rows were rather hard to distinguish from the other rows since their lengths were so close in appearance.
One tendency for us as individuals is to want to be like the rest of the world or to fit into a crowd, to be like them. Yet if we do, we cannot be noticed very well, just as the average rows in my field. As a kid, I stood out. My freckled face made people notice and call me, “Freckle-face.” It was not something that endeared me to them, it separated us. I longed to be like them. But the difference was noticeable, and I stood out in a group.
For a child this was difficult, but I got over it. I like my freckles now. Some might even admire them these days.
The lesson I learned from the field was that the things that make us not-average display God’s creativity. He makes each of us different. We don’t have to be like everyone else. We wear the badge of “Unique” and “Specially-Made”. Which perspective are you living in . . . God’s or the world’s?
See our store for some “Specially-made” designed cards that may suit you.
photo credit: Untitled ABCD via photopin (license)
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