I have heard it said that its the things right in front of us that we most easily overlook in our lives. Yesterday, I was reminded of something that has been and is so much a part of my life that I didn’t always see it: my father’s faithfulness.
Buggs, as his friends know him, has farmed all of his life. He grew up farming on Paris Pike here in Winchester. He farmed on Wades Mill for a few decades before he purchased his own land. This is the land that my family and I now enjoy living and working on.
I could tell you story after story about things he has done, the crazy schedule he has kept as he worked a full time job and farmed full time on the side, the ins and outs of all that maintaining a farm entails, but there are not enough words to tell those stories even if I knew all of them.
Yesterday, he was here at the farm feeding and checking the cattle. I remember looking up and seeing the tractor. This is so common, yet so compelling. My father has exercised this faithful care of the farm and the animals (and his family who lives there) for so many years it is easy to see how it has become the consistent backdrop of our lives. But yesterday I noticed this and I was taken aback. He, along with my mother, have stayed the course. Worked in hard and faithful ways over the years to provide. They have grinded out the work that was before them. When it was not pretty, nor fun, they worked in a faithful way.
As I get older I am paying more and more attention to the way I do things. I realize that faithfulness, faithfulness that fades to the background because it is so consistent, is something I want to learn and practice.
I am no where near the practice of faithfulness in this way, but I am hoping to remember and imitate the model I have seen my entire life.