This Sunday morning we awoke much earlier than the previous. The boys had cows to milk and feed. Remember Mom and I were on the breakfast crew. And now I had a horse to take care of. Before I did anything else I headed for the barn to check on Brutus. Jake and I led him to the creek for water. There I could tie him under a big willow tree for shade, where anyone could find him if they wanted to haul water, but really when Brutus worked, I wanted to be there, too. Dad and Poppop came over with a third of a bucket of corn and a cake of dry grass hay for him.
“He has grass to eat here all day,” Poppop said. “But it’s good if he has some dry feed in him, too. Oats would be better, but there are none here. Maybe your dad can talk to Butch later about his eating regimen. Watch that he doesn’t get anything with mold on it, especially if it’s dusty. Horses just can’t handle moldy feed like cattle do.”
I hurried into the butcher house to help Mom and Grandma with breakfast. They were making a big pot of oatmeal. Nothing they needed me for, but Lynette and I could set the table. We needed twenty-one bowls, cups and spoons. We scattered a few knives around the table even though we were out of bread. At least now we had some butter to add to the oatmeal. We still had sweeteners for it thank goodness. We had both sugar and brown sugar, which we were supposed to use sparingly. Also there was pancake syrup and Dad’s blackstrap molasses. Then just as the crew was arriving, we brought about five gallons of chilled milk and the last bottle of chocolate syrup from the springhouse. We distributed the milk in six pitchers around the table. There was hot water ready as we had a decent supply of tea bags remaining and a little instant coffee. I guess it was a little bit of everything for everybody.
“I wonder what we’ll have to eat up a Butch’s?” Lois asked.
“Don’t worry,” said Jean, “Butch’s wife Clare is a great cook and hostess. I’m sure she has something in mind or they wouldn’t have invited us. My concern is this: what can Sandy, Mel and I make that will keep until it’s time to eat? A month ago I would have picked up the phone and called her to ask what we should bring.”
“If you make something that needs to stay cool, just put it in containers that can be placed in his horse trough and it will be fine,” Harvey said.
“And how are we all getting up there?” Grandmom asked.
“Larry and I talked about that this morning,” Dad said. “Those who can bike or walk, should do so. The rest of us can ride in Larry’s pickup; it’s only two miles round trip. Won’t take more than a quart of gasoline. That way we can take a bunch of our lawn chairs, a couple folding tables, and load the food, too.”
“Good idea,” said Joe, “And honey,” he said to Sandy, “Don’t fret over what to make. Whatever it is, we’ll eat it, and be thankful for it. In fact, Larry, if you can spare me from the rest of the morning chores, I’d like to stay and give them a hand. It’s only about two and a half hours until we should leave.”
“Go right ahead,” Larry responded, “If everyone else pitches in we can get everything done in time.” I went to help the men as usual. We shoveled feed to the different groups. There was only one fence that needed to be moved. We were done with plenty of time to spare; time enough to run into Grandmom’s house, wash up a little, and put on some clean clothes and shoes. By then Larry had pulled his truck to the butcher house to load up. Sandy, Joe and Lois came out with several big bowls of food.
“Well, what did you come up with?” Mom asked.
Sandy answered, “We took stock and figured we had a lot of cabbage, some peppers, vinegar, enough sugar, salt and pepper.”
“So you made pepper cabbage.” Lois said.
“Right, but just two bowls. We also had cream.”
“So you made cole slaw, too?” Mom asked.
“Right again,” Sandy said. “In the other bowl we splurged a little, opened up a few cans of fruit, added some of the apples from the tree in the back meadow and some dry coconut and walnuts to make a little fruit salad.”
“Sounds right good,” said Dad, just as Joe and Mel came out carrying a couple boxes.
“If you like sour cabbage,” Mel bemoaned. “I hope Clare doesn’t have the same thing. I wonder if she’ll have some meat.”
“If she does, she does,” Mom said. “What’s in the boxes?”
“Four jars of chow-chow in case there’s not enough salad and some tomatoes; Clare might not have any and no meal in August is complete without tomatoes.”
“Ha ha,” Dad snorted, “well let’s get going. Alyssa and Lynette, would you bring the hymns?”
“Yessa,” we answered and went into the house to get a large piece of cardboard on which she and I had used a fat black crayon to write the words to two hymns, one on each side.
“Thanks,” said Dad as he put the cardboard in back of the truck right behind the rear window. “You’ll have to use your side mirrors,” he said to Larry. “I guess no cop will pull us over.” Larry just shook his head. “And Mel, did you practice enough?” Dad asked.
“Yes Daddy, more than enough. You picked simple hymns. For how many people will I have to play piano in front of, fifty?”
“Not quite that many. Are you nervous?”
“A little,” she answered.
“Don’t sweat it,” he said, “you’ll do fine.” People piled on and into the truck. I biked of course and others had started walking. My grandmothers were in the front of the truck and Larry let Grandpop drive. Joe came out of the house with a soccer ball and threw that in the pickup bed before beginning his hoof.
“What’s that for?” I asked.
“You never know, “he answered, “there are a few kids up at Butch’s. Do you want to sit around and listen to us talk all afternoon?”
“No, I guess I don’t,” I replied. Joe was a soccer coach. It was probably something he missed. So up the road we went, except for Harvey and Poppop. Dad had told me they weren’t churchgoers. Maybe they were believers; that I couldn’t say for sure. It’s sad when you can’t tell. Or maybe they just didn’t like church. Of course they both had excuses. Harvey said he needed to keep an eye on the cows, especially the one calving. Poppop said there was manuring to do. His sister, my dad’s aunt Mary, had said once that Poppop has been using that excuse to stay home from church since he was ten years old. To each his own.
Crystal View Farm was a beautiful place, well manicured. Of course, no one else had mowed lawns in weeks. Almost everyone stopped when the gas stations ran out of fuel. However people with push reel mowers could still keep after their lawns and Butch had a set of ground driven gang reel mowers that he usually pulled with a tractor. Now he pulled them with a team of Clydesdales and had the lawns looking pretty good.
Clare and Butch’s home had a big front porch facing a nice size lawn which was surrounded by big maple trees. When we arrived, there were already tables and chairs set up for the service. We unloaded ours to add to the configuration. Clare’s piano was in the front room, right next to the door, which was large enough for the boys to easily pull out the piano onto the porch. You couldn’t have asked for a more beautiful day; blue sky with big puffy white clouds, a little breeze and the temperature felt like it was in the 70’s.
When Mel, Lynette and I took our bicycles around the back of the house to park them, we were greeted by a grand surprise. Between Butch’s chicken house and his barn there was a fire going and a spit with a good sized hog roasting away.
“Guess that answers your question about meat?” I asked Mel.
“Answers it well,” she said. Dad, Joe, and Larry had come back to put the bowls of salad in the horse trough and to greet Butch, who was turning the spit skewered into our soon-to-be dinner.
“I didn’t know you had hogs,” Dad said.
“Yesterday morning I didn’t,” Butch answered. “When we returned from your place yesterday afternoon I ventured over to Roger. It’s a five mile trip if you follow the roads, but all I had to do with my team was use the old lane through my woods, cut across one neighbor’s field, another’s lane, and I was there in 20 minutes, no sweat. Roger was kind enough to give me a couple hogs of varying sizes so they become ready for the butcher at different times. In addition to the extra milk we have from the two cows you gave us, I’m hoping I may use some of the corn you have here to feed them.”
“Not a problem at all,” Larry said.
“Oh, I brought some of Harvey’s empty barrels back from Roger, too. Our arrangement is that I can haul them over for him, when we’ve accumulated too much milk in return for some of the hogs he needs to move. He has quite a challenge there, but we can talk about that later. It looks like the others are waiting for us to get started. I’ll stay here to keep this pig rotating; Others will relieve me every ten minutes so no one will miss all the service.”
We headed for the front porch. Just about everyone was seated. Mel took her place at the piano and Dad got started.
“I’d like to welcome everyone here on such a beautiful day. I’m at an advantage here. I know everyone from my family who’ve just come up from Harvey Stump’s dairy and I know everyone else here as they’re part of my church family. We won’t take the time here for introductions, for after the service there will be time for food and fellowship. I encourage everyone to get to know each other then. With everything that has happened in the last several weeks we might be tempted to be thinking a lot about the past. And with uncertainty, we might also be wondering about the future. But for the present, for right now, I’d like you to forget everything else and just focus on God and his Son Jesus Christ for the next 15 to 20 minutes. Let us begin with prayer.”
We all stood as Dad led in prayer. He then introduced the first hymn,
“We praise Thee, O God, our Redeemer, Creator.”
Mel played pretty well and as the tune was fairly familiar and with the aid of our sign, the group sang terrifically. It was a good praise hymn, but in spite of Dad’s instructions we couldn’t help thinking of the past and the future when we sang some of the lyrics such as:
“Through life’s storm and tempest our Guide hast Thou been.
When perils o’er take us, escape Thou wilt make us,
Thy strong arm will guide us, Our God is beside us,
And with Thy help, O Lord, life’s battles we win.”
After the hymn, Dad led us in silent confession and then went on: “The scripture I’ve chosen today is from the Gospel of John, chapter 20, verses 24-29, the story of Thomas.”
“Now Thomas (called Didymus), one of the Twelve, was not with the disciples when Jesus came. So the other disciples told him, ‘We have seen the Lord!’”
“But he said to them, ‘Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my hand into his side, I will not believe it.’”
“A week later his disciples were in the house again, and Thomas was with them. Though the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, ‘Peace be with you!’ Then he said to Thomas, ‘Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe.’”
“Thomas said to him, ‘My Lord and my God!’”
“Then Jesus told him, ‘Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.’”
Dad continued, “Is it safe to say that no one here is in Thomas’s camp? No, not because you do not doubt. Almost everyone has doubted if just for a smidgen of time since your walk with Jesus began, or during the time before you accepted Christ as your Lord and Savior. That’s not it.”
“You’re not in Thomas’s camp because you have not seen the risen Lord; he did. You’re not in Thomas’s camp because he had to see to believe; you don’t. The last line in the last verse has always had great meaning to me when Jesus said, ‘Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.’ He’s talking about us, about you! We who are not in Thomas’s camp are blessed! Now I’ll renege on my own suggestion about thinking about the recent past and future; it’s hard not to, isn’t it? With what’s happening around us do you feel blessed? Believe me you should.”
“When you lose your job, you are blessed!”
“When you lose all the money you have in the bank, you are blessed!”
“When your retirement checks stop coming, you are blessed!”
“When the gasoline supply dries up, you are blessed!”
“When the electricity goes out, you are blessed!”
“When the food in your refrigerator spoils, you are blessed!”
“When you have to carry water to flush the toilets, you are blessed!”
“When you’re sick and tired of eating oatmeal or tomato soup, you are blessed!”
“When you have to leave your home just to find water to drink, you are blessed!”
“When your back hurts from picking beans, or your arms from shoveling feed, or your hands from milking cows or your feet from walking when you used to ride, you are blessed!”
“When your heart aches from wondering about the rest of our families and friends who we’ve not been able to contact, not knowing how they are faring to the point that you just want everything to go back to the way is was before, you are blessed!”
“Yes and when you see suffering around you, when you are persecuted for your belief in Jesus Christ and even when you suffer the final pain of death, you will be blessed!”
“And why are you blessed? Because the scripture says so, in Jesus’ own words: ‘Blessed are those who have not seen yet have believed.’ Why are you blessed? Because you have not seen, yet you believe! Your faith in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savoir has made you blessed. And it’s our faith that will pull us through this, will provide through Jesus’ love for us the things we need, will heal our bodies when they hurt, and fill our hearts with even more faith, with hope and with love for one another.”
“Love for one another - brings me to one more additional and somewhat counterpoint. In Matthew chapter 25, Jesus talks about judgment and the separation of the sheep from the goats. Where the sheep are judged as righteous and declared ‘Blessed by my Father’. Does anyone remember what the sheep did to receive the favorable judgment?”
It was quiet for a few moments, and then Ben finally got it started, “When I was hungry and you gave me something to eat.”
“When I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink,” Mom said.
“When the prisoner was visited,” said another.
“When someone was given clothes, and you looked after the sick.”
“And when the stranger was invited in!” concluded Jean.
“Good,” Dad continued, “So when we see someone hungry, thirsty, sick, naked, in prison, or a stranger we are in some sense seeing Jesus. Don’t let that confuse you; it’s not like Thomas seeing Jesus. We are still blessed by believing without seeing, that’s faith. But we are also blessed, again in Jesus’ own words when ‘Whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me,’ that’s action. And I have a feeling that in the near future there will be numerous occasions when we will be able to put our faith into action by ministering to the needy.”
“In conclusion, hold steadfast in the faith and be prepared to put it into action then we will continue to be blessed just as Jesus has promised.”
Dad said a short prayer, followed by the Lord’s Prayer and we concluded by singing “What a Friend We Have in Jesus,” and it was the last line that really caught my attention: “In His arms He’ll take and shield thee, Thou wilt find a solace there.” And I thought to myself, up until this point in my life it was my mother’s arms I wanted to be in when I needed solace. Alas, she would not be there forever, but Jesus would and with all the unforeseen things that might soon be happening, it would be His arms I wanted to be in.
To be continued…. Mort
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