God Made a Farmer

I had this idea to honor my love for valentine's day here on my blog. I wanted to tell you all the mushy, wonderful ways in which Mr. Onion makes me glad to be his wife every day. I reflected on those qualities that make him a man I am honored to call mine and then I thought of a classic piece of oration which lately gained some serious press. When I hear this piece it brings tears to my eyes and an overwhelming pinch to my heart. It says it all so beautifully. This is my little salute to my hardworking, soft, yet strong, thoughtful and smart and smart mouthed, wonderful husband and to all those men out there who embody all that is good in this world. 

God Made a Farmer by Paul Harvey 1978

And on the eighth day, God looked down on his planned paradise and said, “I need a caretaker.” So God made a farmer.

God said, “I need somebody willing to get up before dawn, milk cows, work all day in the field, milk cows again, eat supper, then go to town and stay past midnight at a meeting of the school board.” So God made a farmer.

God said, “I need somebody willing to sit up all night with a newborn colt and watch it die, then dry his eyes and say,’Maybe next year,’ I need somebody who can shape an ax handle from an ash tree, shoe a horse with hunk of car tire, who can make a harness out hay wire, feed sacks and shoe scraps. Who, during planting time and harvest season will finish his 40-hour week by Tuesday noon and then, paining from tractor back, put in another 72 hours.” So God made a farmer.

God said, “I need somebody strong enough to clear trees and heave bales, yet gentle enough to yean lambs and wean pigs and tend the pink-comb pullets, who will stop his mower for an hour to splint the leg of a meadowlark.”So God made a farmer.

It had to be somebody who’d plow deep and straight and not cut corners. Somebody to seed, weed, feed, breed, and brake, and disk, and plow, and plant, and tie the fleece and strain the milk, . Somebody who’d bale a family together with the soft, strong bonds of sharing, who would laugh, and then sigh and then reply with smiling eyes when his son says that he wants to spend his life doing what Dad does. “So God made a farmer.”
Happy Valentine's Day