As I write this, our riding lawn mower is stuck on a rock in the middle of our pasture. Oh, and it’s on a hill, pointed down, with the rock wedged between two of the deck blades in such a way that in order to free it, we’d need to lift the front end of the entire tractor up high enough so that the mowing deck can go over the rock.  We’ve ordered the jack. It should be here in four days. 

When John and I were problem-solving this particular situation, we began noticing that there were buried rocks all over the hillside. Of course, we didn’t see them; we just began tripping over them as we walked around the stuck tractor.  After we acknowledged that the tractor probably had no business being where it was, I began digging out some of the larger rocks using a crowbar, which I know isn’t the tool for the job, but our new life is all a learning process, right? That’s when I remembered a children’s story that I used to read to Timothy when he was a little boy titled “Thank God for Rocks!”

In this story, a poor farmer and his family buy a farm, but they don’t have any money for much else, so they start working the fields ~ and they keep having to dig out rocks! The work is really hard, but they continue to be grateful, always adding to their dinner prayer, “Thank you, God, for rocks!”  After a while, they have enough rocks to build a chimney for a fireplace ~ then they have enough rocks to build a farmhouse ~then they have enough rocks for fence walls for their animals! One day, they realize that it was the very rocks that made their work hard that had given them their beautiful, strong homestead. 

I always loved reading that book to Timothy ~ such marvelous life lessons! I must say, though, that this farmer had two strong boys to help him dig those rocks, and John and I have … well, we have two barn cats that were really intrigued by the tractor sitting in the middle of their hunting grounds. Our life lesson was that we MUST remember that we’re well into our 50s and have to be very aware of things like backs, knees and all our other knit-together bones from previous adventures.  So, I’m going to build us a stone boat! It’s not a boat, and it’s not made of stone, but it should help us keep saying Thank you, God for all the rocks! Stay tuned…