Life Matters - May 24, 2023

I had the privilege of being born in 1960 and spending the next two decades in the rural America of Lancaster County, PA, Amish farm country. It was a settled, secure, peaceful setting that, for the first six years of my life, I took for granted and if I ever thought about it my inner assumption was that this is just the way it is and will be. That assumption was momentously jarred when I was informed I was now old enough to go to school and has had its jarrings ever since. But I am, and continue to be, grateful for such a stable home-life. So stable, in fact, that I eventually thought it not exciting enough. So I embarked on my own, before I was ready for it, at age 20. From the vantage point of going on 43 years later, I reflect on that inexperienced 20 year old thinking he has what it takes to face the world, but had to learn through failures, and many another hard knock, that he first of all needs Jesus and second of all needs brothers and sisters in the Lord. The need for Jesus grips and holds me to this day as does the need for His body, the church universal, and the local assembly. I have, however, outgrown the need for my parents, or perhaps it is more realistic to say they have outgrown me, as well as all else earthbound, as they have departed for the spirit realm where they have need for none of these things, God bless their memory. They did quite well while they were here, raising six girls and five boys on the 80 acre home farm of my younger days. As I reflect on the hopes and dreams “yours truly” and his young bride had when we tied the proverbial knot and I observe the hopes and dreams of our own offspring when they do the same, I seem to feel the hopes and dreams my parents must have had as well when they married, moved into the solid brick farmhouse, began farming, and raising their own family. They raised crops, they milked cows, they planted and cared for fruit trees, grape vines enshrouding sturdy grape arbors, a garden that likely grew with each child, raspberry bushes and strawberry plants. My older siblings likely remember early strivings to get the farm established, but by the time number eight (yours truly) came along it was all so well established that I took everything, even the indoor toilet in the indoor bathroom with its built-in shower for granted, as if life has always been this way, until my eldest brother John informed me one day that “back when I was a boy” all they had was the tiny shed north of the “kettle-house” that he called the “privy” and they took baths in the “kettle-house.” I was about as shocked as the day when Grandpa Lapp, having heard complaints from, yes, “yours truly,” about having to fork manure onto the manure spreader by hand instead of with a skid loader like our “efficient” neighbor across the way, responded with, “Just be glad you have a manure spreader, back when I was a boy we didn’t even have a manure spreader.” I was baffled. “What? Did you never haul manure?” “Of course we hauled manure,” quoth Grandpa, “we forked the manure twice. By hand. We forked it onto a flatbed wagon, hauled it to the field and forked if off again.” My stunned silence must have softened Grandpa’s heart a bit as he looked at me kindly and said, “See? Just be thankful you have a manure spreader.”

From my vantage point of going on 63 years, I am thankful for manure spreaders. The kind we use to clean out the barn, that is. And I am thankful that Dat and Mam (Pennsylvania Deutsch for Dad and Mom) taught us the value of hard work and of “doing life” together. Besides farm work, all of us boys had times of off-the-farm work where we could learn other trades which eventually took all but John “off the farm.” The girls all learned homemaking skills that have served them, their husbands, their children, grandchildren, friends, neighbors and others very well. They are blessed. And so are us boys, to have been, and to be a part of such a family. And between this Mother’s and Father’s Day, as always, I am grateful for our Dat and Mam who taught us right from wrong. Hope you all had a happy Mother’s Day and that you’ll have a happy Father’s Day! Life Matters!