Stopped by a cherry orchard this morning that had a u-pick or we pick sign, thought I would pick up a few of ‘they’ pick cherries.

    Talked with the young lady that was selling the cherries. 

    The owner of the orchard was a lady who works in The Dalles and has to drive 45 minutes there and back – every day.  When she gets back from work she picks cherries to sell the next day.

    It is a family orchard, her father passed away a few years ago and her mother moved – she has been doing this ever since; mainly by herself with an occasional assistance from relatives and friends.

    There was a time when that orchard probably supported the family, but it can’t any longer.  That is the same story for many such small farmers.

    In order to keep their property, doing what they love, working hard – it is in their blood – they have to work off their farm.  They love working in agriculture, they love seeing the Lord’s work as the cherry blossoms turn into green cherries and they ripen.

    They baby those trees, they trim the old branches out, they work hard to make sure the new branches will grow straight and strong and produce the best cherries possible.

    They endure the possibility of weather ruining all their hard work at the last minute.  But, they won’t stop, it is too much a part of them.

    There are so many small farms and orchards that cannot survive without the owners working full time to keep their heads above water.  It would be easier to just stop, sell off their property to larger orchardists or even to developers, but they can’t.  They keep working, they keep harvesting, it is in their blood.

    These people are what America is all about, they – along with those that can subsist from the proceeds of their farms - are how this country has survived and thrived through the centuries; unfortunately, not enough people realize that fact.

    They all have my highest admiration!

---------------

Psalm 147:7-9 KJV  “Sing unto the Lord with thanksgiving; sing praise upon the harp unto our God:

⁸ Who covereth the heaven with clouds, who prepareth rain for the earth, who maketh grass to grow upon the mountains.

⁹ He giveth to the beast his food, and to the young ravens which cry.”

    Working in the soil, watching the growth of the crops creates a feeling within that makes us understand how close God is and how much He loves us.

    It is too bad that more people can’t enjoy that experience, can’t feel the nurturing of the dirt as they run it between their fingers.

    They are missing so much.

    Yes, we can be thankful, we can praise God, we can worship Him without ever having planted anything; we can enjoy the parks and other groomed areas that others have worked at – but there is something special about being with Him in a garden that you have worked in personally.

    Seeing His work in all phases, gives us a clearer understanding of His greatness. 

Genesis 2:7-8 KJV  “And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.

⁸ And the Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there he put the man whom he had formed.”

Genesis 3:8 KJV  “And they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LordGod amongst the trees of the garden.

    God put man in His garden and that is where He intended to walk and talk with him, there has to be a reason for that.

John 18:1 KJV  “When Jesus had spoken these words, he went forth with his disciples over the brook Cedron, where was a garden, into the which he entered, and his disciples.”

    It was to a garden that Jesus chose to spend those last hours before He was to be betrayed.

    There is just something about a garden that we find ourselves closer to God.

Later, Art (-: