Since I was a young child, I have loved being in the garden. My mom always had flowers planted around our home, and we grew a huge vegetable garden. I was always amazed that you could plant a seed in the ground and it would sprout and then grow into a full-sized plant that provided beauty or fresh food to eat.
Even now that I am an adult, I continue to marvel at the miracles of the wide variety of not only the plants but also the other stunning objects of nature around me.
When I travel, one of my favorite things to do is take time to look at all the plants to see how many I recognize and how many are new to me.
And every time I do, I think about how lucky we are to be blessed so abundantly. To me, there is no more powerful testimony of a Creator than the world around us.
A couple of years ago, my husband attended a Farm Progress Hay Expo and was lucky enough to snap a few photographs of a wild turkey flying up out of one of the alfalfa fields.
As I considered what I’d like to use on the cover of this issue of the magazine, I remembered those pictures.
As a starting point, I handed them over to one of our talented in-house designers and artists, Kevin Brown (kevindbrown.com) and let him go to work.
The result is the beautiful illustration you see on the cover. But while we had been discussing the idea, Kevin told me about a talk he had recently heard by North American wildlife artist Leon Parson (leonparson.com).
You should know that I sit in awe of artists. I truly admire what they can do with a simple brush and piece of canvas. I don’t know if I will ever understand how they do what they do.
But as I listened to the talk, Leon Parson spoke about where he finds inspiration and guidance for his art. He referred to a “Master Designer” that follows “natural laws” and “divine organization.”
He also referred to a passage of scripture in the Bible found in Job, chapter 12, which reads, in part:
“But ask now the beasts, and they shall teach thee; and the fowls of the air, and they shall tell thee:
Or speak to the earth, and it shall teach thee: and the fishes of the sea shall declare unto thee.
Who knoweth not in all these that the hand of the Lord hath wrought this?
In whose hand is the soul of every living thing, and the breath of all mankind.”
After reading these verses, he asked the question, “What do you think (the beasts and the fowls) have to tell us?”
He went on to talk about some specific art principles that make a painting or other art form pleasing to the eye and how things around us follow these “rules” when you start looking at them in detail.
Nature follows patterns. If you were to plant a corn seed in the ground, it would sprout as a corn plant, not carrots or alfalfa. When you water and fertilize it, it continues to grow as corn.
When all the conditions are right, the stalks grow tall and ears form with kernels in straight rows. These things are no accident.
I’ve said it before, but I don’t think it can be said too many times. We are blessed to be involved in agriculture.
We are witnesses to the gifts and handiwork of God every day as we labor with the “fruits of the field.” Truly “the hand of the Lord hath wrought this.”
During the upcoming weeks and months, take time to look around and appreciate the earth and all the gifts it has to offer.
Let us remember the verse found in James 1:17 which begins with the phrase “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above...” and give thanks to a kind and glorious God that has given us all.
May each of you enjoy a wonderful holiday season surrounded by friends and family and look forward with gratitude to a happy and prosperous 2012.
