With plenty of rainfall this spring, we reckoned that we could be a bit more ambitious with our planting schedule than when drought conditions cause us to take a more conservative approach.
For example, this year we decided to double our typical onion planting, which meant we would be planting 100,000 onion plugs over two acres. We have always had a good crop of onions, and people appreciate receiving them for their household, so we were excited to expand production. Thankfully, this plan was supported by an unusually large number of early season student and other volunteer groups to accomplish the onion planting.
Each plug was placed in the earth by hand with the help of about 600 volunteers over a 3 week period. There was a tremendous buzz around the farm about the huge number of onions that were planted, and aren’t the rows beautiful to behold!
Then a week or two later, something bad happened.
We watched in horror as thousands of onions withered and died right before our eyes. What had attacked our onion patch? In all the years of growing vegetables, we had never seen this before — sheer destruction of the young onion crop.
Turns out, as we were anxiously awaiting a break in the rain to plant the onions, leaving the plugs out while we waited enabled the laying of eggs and subsequent infestation of onion maggots. We lost about 25% of the crop and we learned for the first time about the dreaded onion maggot, and how to protect against them in the future.
In this clump, the onion maggot is visible at about 9 o’clock.
It was very disheartening for the team at the farm, of course, to observe this destruction so vividly and so soon after planting. Who knew? Is there something that we need to do differently going forward? What is the impact on the soil? It did feel like we had been robbed of a big chunk of the crop, and we truly never saw it coming.
This is surely an illustration of how the enemy of our soul works. Yes, we have those personal “buttons” that the enemy knows how to push with temptation, usually a desire of the flesh. But, we can also be completely blindsided by an attack we never saw coming. A diagnosis, a betrayal, a sudden job loss — all of these can cause instability, confusion, doubts, even about our faith.
Jesus describes the effects of false teachers, who do the work of Satan.
“Therefore Jesus said again, “‘Very truly I tell you, I am the gate for the sheep. All who have come before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep have not listened to them. I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved. They will come in and go out, and find pasture. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full’” (John 10:7-10).
The “I am” statements of Jesus are particularly meaningful at the farm. When he made those declarations, Jesus was not only using the name of God to describe himself, but he was emphasizing his present-ness, which is something we must remind ourselves of everyday at the farm. The Lord is in the midst of it all, from the inner workings of the soil, plants and fungi, to the lives and hearts of people we serve with and the people who receive fresh vegetables from the farm. Nothing escapes the Lord’s awareness, and we are wise to keep our eyes on him, rather than on our circumstances, which can involve difficult people or difficult challenges, like onion maggots.
We trust God with it all, and we thank him for shielding us from the attacks of the enemy, those we see plainly, and those we are never even aware of thanks to his providential hand of protection.
In the same passage of John’s gospel, Jesus says, “I am the good shepherd. I know my sheep and my sheep know me” (John 10:14). It is by listening to his voice that the sheep know the shepherd (John 10:4).
Following the voice of the good shepherd is another way that the Lord protects us from dangers seen and unseen. Discerning the master’s voice requires time spent together, listening and learning from the Lord. This lesson was reinforced recently by our bull, Francis.
Francis has been with us for almost two years. He weighs about a ton, is gentle, productive and compliant. A few weeks ago, we had thunderstorms one night with lightning, which scared Francis and blew the electric fence. The next morning, Francis was nowhere to be found. Finally, we located him about a half mile away on the western edge of our property by the woods. Getting him back to the cattle barn would be a tough challenge except for the fact that Francis has been cared for every day by one of our farmhands, Brenton. Francis knew and trusted Brenton’s calming voice, and with nothing other than his voice and a feed bucket, Brenton patiently walked Francis all the way back to his barn.
When you know the voice of the master, you can trust that he will always lead you home. Jesus is the way, and the truth and the life (John 14:6) and no matter how the enemy throws us off track with an unexpected attack, we can get right back to center when we follow the good shepherd, who never says “I didn’t see that coming.”
