Thursday, June 27, 2013

A Farmer's View on the DOMA Overruling...

I am a simple person but not a simpleton (I hope). I am not overly upset by the US Supreme Court's decision yesterday to overrule the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA). I am also not unmoved. My emotions and reactions to the decision lie somewhere between the hysterical "it's the end of civilization as we know it" syndrome and the Pollyanna-istic position of "everything is going to be all right".

You see, I am an agriculturist, a farmer if you will. And I have come to learn some laws of nature that are in reality the laws that our Creator God has amazingly instilled in everything. So, with your permission, let me share with you some things I've experienced and gleaned from the land and from the Lord.

1. God is in control of the growth and the final product. We can plant, weed, toil and even worry all day long but in the end, only God can cause the growth and the product to emerge. I have always been amazed when I plant a vegetable seed. It is so small and yet all the potential for growth into a new plant (thousands of times larger than the original seed) and all the yield that will come from it, is already encapsulated in that very seed. I can prepare a good growing environment, supply plenty of water, make sure it is in a sunny area, but in the end, only God can bring about the growth and the final product. The reason I don't fret too much about the US Supreme Court's ruling on marriage and the family? I know that God's laws are never changed by man's law. In fact, I am told that He sits in the heavens and even chuckles at our errant efforts.

2. You generally harvest what you plant. I have never planted a pea patch and had an abundant harvest of corn. It doesn't work that way. Bean seeds produce beans. Tomato slips produce tomatoes. There are weeds that grow up and want to obscure what was planted, but I am pretty sure that what you plant is what you eventually harvest. With the reversing of the Defense of Marriage Act, we as a society have sown a seed. It will produce its own harvest. And since it is a anti-Biblical and opposed to God's law, it will be interesting to see what we reap. Again, I am not a doomsday prophet. But we would be foolish to think that we will not reap what we sow.

3. The rain pretty much falls on the unjust and the just alike. No matter what the man-made decisions that our country and society comes up with, we as followers of Jesus should passionately hold to His teachings, His ways. However, in the process, we should never stop loving those whose opinion, choices and even lifestyles differ from ours. God doesn't love those who support this act any less than He loves us. Nor should we.

As I said, I am a pretty simple person. And I am convinced that no matter what little decisions we make down here and whatever little good seeds or bad seeds we plant, God is still on His throne. 

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