God and Country
by Victoria Sewell
(1 Timothy 4:4-5, NIV).
The country people I have known understood the concept of thankfulness. They arose before the sun, gathered eggs, milked the cows, and let the horses out to pasture in those early morning hours when there was still dew on the grass, and the birds had just begun chirping their dawn melodies. God seemed more tangible in the yonder.
We regularly visited my relatives at their farm in Turkey Creek. Mom and my aunt spent mornings in the kitchen. Peals of laughter and banging pots cut the air like claps of thunder. Eager to escape the morning’s din, I pushed open the squeaky screen door of the clapboard house and followed my uncle to the barn. The cool morning air stung my cheeks, and I wrapped my scarf tighter around my neck.
The sweet, earthy smell of hay hit my nose as the barn doors swung open.
My uncle handed me a rake to muck the stalls and said, “Idle hands are the devil’s workshop.”
Soon, smells of freshly baked biscuits, fried apples, squirrel gravy, and honey began to waft from the house. We finished our chores, left our boots on the back stoop, and entered the warm home.
Once seated at the bountiful table, I glanced at my mom as I reached for a biscuit. She had pursed her lips, and her eyes darted back and forth as if to say, “Read the room!” I placed the biscuit back onto the serving platter and pushed my palms together as my uncle began to say grace.
Her quiet reminder taught me to have a grateful heart. Prayer consecrated each feast on our table. I have never forgotten my source.
Sometimes writers complain of emptiness. We idle in gloom and despair of content for our starved, white pages. When we seek the Lord first in prayer, he reveals abundant gifts of material. He can guide us through journaling our life experiences and writing from our personal stories. God provides wisdom, inspiration, and revelatory insight into everything we write. We have a life-landscape of reasons to offer thanks for our co-authorship in Christ.
I am grateful for the creative process and hopeful that my efforts have a heavenly purpose.
Dear God, I continuously praise you. It delights you when, with a grateful heart, I acknowledge that all I receive is from you. I pray that whatever I write glorifies you. Amen.
Victoria Jon Sewell and her husband, Byron, co-authored and illustrated Sun-hee’s Adventures Under the Land of Morning Calm. Members of the Lewis Carroll Society, they were nationally recognized by the Wall Street Journal in 2015 for their collection at the Alice 150 celebration. Victoria worked with the founder of the Speak Easy Method of writing and is a Word Weavers member in Tampa, Florida.
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