Incredible

I planted potatoes yesterday: Fifty pounds of Kennebec potatoes, carefully sliced to maximize the 'eyes' planted, placed about fifteen inches apart, in fifteen rows in the garden at the farm. The soil worked, well . . . 'like a garden', light and fluffy, easy to rototill, easy to use the potato plow in. It was about four hours of the nicest time I have spent on the farm this Spring, with 80 degree... weather, an occasional cloud, and the sound of frogs absolutely filling the air down by the pond, not so very far away. Incredible.

What is incredible, too, is that I felt guilty about taking four hours away from work. I am the one who preaches constantly about the need for 'Sabbath' yet, if it's good enough for God to take it, if it's good enough for God to include it in the Ten Commandments, if it's good enough for Jesus to observe it, then why do I view taking Sabbath as a guilty pleasure? Is my DNA screwed up? Or have I suddenly found myself worshipping at the wrong altar in the midst of the Lenten journey, sacrificing my soul on the altar of 'way too busy' so that I might achieve the nirvana of 'successful at getting everything done'? Hmmmmm.

While planting the potatoes, I stopped and picked up some soil in my hand and just smelled it. Again, incredible.Some people wax eloquent concerning smelling the roses, I defy you to find a more pure and wonderful fragrance than freshly opened soil in the Springtime. A thousand images of growing up on the farm flooded my memory as I inhaled the intoxicating aroma of that garden soil, but in that moment none stronger than savoring a Sunday afternoon in the Spring just relaxing and enjoying the day, relishing the scent of God at work in new life all around us. Sabbath. Incredible.

I pray for you 'Incredible' today. I pray for you 'Sabbath'. For, and I am speaking to myself here, in the moment we are too busy or feel too guilty to take time to take in the wonders of God, to observe Sabbath, we are missing the very reason we have been created . . . and that in itself is sin. Savor the 'Incredible' today.