It almost seemed to Jon and Al that the time to start seeding would never come. During the long winter months, the boys helped on Saturdays to get the machinery in good repair. Axles had to be greased, wheels adjusted, bolts tightened, plough shares sharpened, and many such odd jobs.
When spring finally arrived, it took quite awhile to get the ground worked just right. Even after that, late frost lay hard and cold on the fields in the morngs. But at last one afternoon they backed the truck up to the grain shed and began loading up the heavy sacks of seed wheat, and hauled them out into the field where the seeders were hitched behind the tractor.
Five sacks were emptied into the trough of each seeder. Along the bottom of each trough, a row of funnels extended down to the ground, through which the seeds dropped uniformly in rows as it rolled along behind the rumbling tractor. Jon rode on one seeder and Al on the other. Their jobs were to move back and forth on the foot board that extended from one end of the seeder to the other, and keep check on the funnels to see they did not get stopped up. The seed must run out freely—there must be no “skips” in the field.
The keen fresh air fanned their faces, and the sun felt warm and good on their backs—the boys liked this job of riding the seeders. Sometimes they hoed ff the foot boards and jogged along behind in the soft dirt, watching the seed dropping, dropping, dropping into the ground. Then they had to run extra fast to catch up, and jump onto the foot board again.
Down under the ground these little seeds soon began sprouting, and the kernels became mushy and died, yielding up their matter to the new shoot that was springing up. A couple of weeks later, the whole field was a soft living carpet of green wheat.
“Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit.” John 12:2424Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit. (John 12:24). The Lord Jesus spoke these words to His disciples to show them that life is through death. The wheat seed must die to give life to the new stalk of wheat. So He, the blessed Son of God, came into this poor sinful world to die that we poor sinners, dead in our sins, might live. Nailed to that center cross on Calvary’s hill, with thorns for a crown, jeered by the cruel mob, forsaken of God, He bowed His head and died. His blood was shed.
They buried Him in a sepulcher, sealed the tomb and set a watch. But He arose! Here is immortality and por. Here is resurrection life! “Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ’s at His coming.” 1 Corinthians 15:2323But every man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ's at his coming. (1 Corinthians 15:23). Are you, dear reader, one of His? They that are Christ’s are those who have come to Him as lost guilty sinners and received life—eternal life—by faith in Him and His finished work. God teaches us this wonderful truth every time we plant a seed in the ground.
ML 12/26/1954