For a few weeks now, my Dad has been loading out beans on the farm. Day after day bushels of soybeans made their way through "the pit" to the loading auger, into a truck, and then off to the river barges to ship to some factory to make candles, cleaners, crayons, and stuff we eat. However, with each bushel that came through "the pit" at the granary on the farm, there were those few soybeans that bounced around like pinballs...and eventually found their way underneath "the pit". There, combined with moisture from humidity (and the occasional leak from rain), those little beans congregated together to make the foulest smell you can ever imagine. Pig manure, chicken poop, and even anything that may come out of us...don't even come close to stackin' up to what this wet, rank, stanky pile of rotten mess will do to the sensors in your nostrils once you breath in. For three weeks these beans have sat there, attracting every death fly, buzz fly, green fly, and house fly within five miles!
On Thursdays (when I can), I have been blessed to help my Dad on the farm. Most of those days are awesome! Getting to spend time with Dad, Uncle Lightbulb (don't ask), seeing my Grandparents, Mom cooking lunch (thanks for the sauerkraut-actual spelling-weird, huh?). The work on most days is accompanied by some jovial conversation, an occasional bursting of laughter, and the time goes by rather quickly. Last Thursday was NOT the case.
After a pleasant morning of hoeing out the sweet corn patch..."the pit" beckoned me (or should I say buzzed). Rounding the corner, around the first grain bin...a faint "bzzzzz" could be heard echoing off the steel sides of the bins. I have seriously never heard so many flies buzzing around at one time! There had to be THOUSANDS of them, and they were all surrounding "the pit" (where all grain is loaded and unloaded) like buzzing vulchers.
Dad descended down a ladder into the depths (6 feet), as he navigated his way around the triangular under-side of "the pit". A drop light illuminated the scene of black and green flies circling around a muddy, soupy mess of three week old, soiled soybeans. The only tools to clean this mess? A rope...a bucket...and a shovel. I lowered the bucket into the pit for the first time, and as Dad filled it with the AWFUL contents of decaying seeds...the smell wafted up int my face, smacking around inside my nose, curling nose hairs left and right. Taking the rope, I pulled the bucket up out of "the pit", and there I feel for the first time the slimy, waste covered underside of the bucket as I throw it into the front-end loader. For FOUR HOURS this process was repeated, and never did the flies retreat, nor did the smell evacuate. In fact, in got worse!
No amount of washing could get that most terrible smell off my hands. As I type this, I become nauseous as I waft my hands across my face. This was, of all afternoons, most miserable.
However, those hours of stinkiness made me realize just how blessed I am (it took a few hours of showering and relaxation to realize that, but this was a blessing). Solomon said, "I have seen the business that God has given to the children of man to be busy with. He has made everything beautiful in its time." (Ecclesiastes 3:10-11a) It's a beautiful sight to see a green field, waving with blades of green wheat. It's another beautiful sight to see a combine charging through row after row of ripe wheat, harvesting bushel upon bushel of grain with explosive efficiency. But that wheat has to die in order for anyone to profit. Changes must take place in order for life to keep going. "The pit" won't stay clean forever. There will be another time (quite soon) when grain will have to be loaded out from the bins, and sold...and once again "the pit" will again change its landscape from clean to rotting stench. However...if there was no grain being harvested, no fields to plow, no seeds to plant, no farm to enjoy the company of my family...then there would be no need to clean "the pit". There is blessing in everything...but you have to open your eyes, take a deep breath (without gagging)..and look.
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