8/2/05 Our Heavenly Father, we give our thanks for this day, for the opportunity of our fellowship with each other and for the challenges that await each of us. Keep us on course and focused in the right direction.
And on this opening day of our County Fair* be with and bless those who till the soil and help sustain our physical needs.
*Wood County Fair in Bowling Green, Ohio also the home of the National Tractor Pulling Competition.
Mom and Dad’s home was not far from the County Fairgrounds. They were also surrounded by cornfields. When there was a drought and crops were in trouble, my parents truly lamented for the farmers. When spring rains delayed or washed out the planting season, then too were they sensitive to others, even though neither were from farming families. I loved that they could empathize.
Today’s prop is a beautiful hand blown and formed glass….ashtray. I vaguely remember it being used as such. It seems sacrilegious to use something so beautiful as an ashtray, but it was the custom back then. Smoking was glamorous. Smoking was prevalent. Ashtrays were huge centerpieces in the living room.
Lung cancer was the challenge awaiting Dad. Stopping smoking at 83 didn’t alter the course, yet he stayed focused on a positive direction.
I love that he stayed focused, in this prayer, on the quiet persevering life of the farmer, rather than the bone-rattling, earth shaking brief pull of the deafening tractor. A tractor that never harvested anything.
Ashtray: Erickson blown glass with controlled bubbles. For more information