July 18, 2022 – Click here to listen
I visited my home in the keys this weekend and spent the entire time making arrangements to move the rest of our things to Mississippi. We are fast approaching our closing date and soon we will be gone from that little piece of paradise to another. I thought of a name for my new farm, “Done Roaming”. Of course, my family and friends don’t believe we will stay put, but I feel sure that barring some dire medical condition that requires assisted living this is the last move for us.
There is something about farm life that I love. I bush hogged a large field before I left for the keys that are adjacent to our home and when we got home yesterday evening and it began getting closer to dark, I eased out on the back porch and the field I’d mowed had two big bucks eating the tender grass that had already sprouted up. I called my wife out there and we looked at them through binoculars for some time.
Our closest neighbors are down the road a way and our entire property is fenced in with a high fence. It is perhaps a quarter of a mile to our house from our front gate giving us complete privacy. We don’t hear sirens or traffic and aside from the occasional flocks of geese getting riled up and honking their displeasure at something or other birds singing it is pretty much refreshingly quiet.
Jesus used to go to quiet places away from everybody and everything to pray. While there is certainly no prerequisite or command to do so, I’ve been thinking if He did it, why not me? I’ve found a little hamlet with towering mature hardwoods with a creek running through it located near the center of our property. Early in the morning, it is often misty in this little area. I stop my vehicle and I sit there for quite some time looking around at God’s beautiful hidden treasure as I begin to pray. As soon as the forest settles back into accepting my presence, I begin to see some of God’s creatures appear. Several squirrels are the first to show up and if I’m lucky perhaps a whitetail or two will cautiously walkthrough.
I pray in earnest for our nation and the world among other things. I think about the violence, murders, rape, drug overdoses, divorce, lies, corruption, and the bitter lonely existence of so many people. I pray that they can somehow experience God’s love, His peace, and His joy. I wish they could visit a little piece of the secret hideaway that God has afforded me just to understand that there is more to life than they could ever realize without knowing Jesus. As my mind wanders in my little prayer garden. I wonder what Jesus prayed for when He escaped to the solitude of the wilderness. I have a feeling that He was praying and interceding for us.
He loves us so much and yet so many turn their backs on Him. Find time to spend with Jesus today and every day. Don’t be in a hurry. The world can wait.
Luke 5:16
But Jesus often withdrew to the wilderness for prayer.