The Farm

I recently visited my grandparents’ old farm, which had been sold to a nursery business in the 70's.  The house was burned down intentionally a few years ago after falling into disrepair. Now the nursery business has abandoned the use of the property altogether. 

I walked around trying to find a foundation, or maybe some ashes.  But there was no evidence of the house at all.  I resorted to trying to imagine the house behind me, looking down the drive towards the entrance.  I wished my mom and dad were there so we could compare thoughts. 

I walked back to where the chicken houses once stood on the farm.  At the far end of those buildings there used to sit a little bungalow where the family who tended the chickens lived. 

Now, near the location where one of the chicken houses had once stood were an old mobile home and some out buildings, put there by the nursery business.  Behind where the farmhouse had stood were the skeletal remains of greenhouses. 

Besides trying to mentally reconstruct the farm, I was trying to get an idea of what it would take to clean it up.  There was a song struck in my head.  Tim McGraw’s  "I Miss Back When"  had just been getting a lot of radio airplay.  While I did “miss back when”, my thought was not to bring back what once was, but to start something new on land that had once been very precious to the Tingle family.  

I wouldn’t bring back the old house.  I wouldn’t rebuild the chicken houses or the little caretaker’s house.  But I might dig around and actually find that old farm house foundation, and build a new house there.  I might build a go-cart track for my children and cover one of those greenhouse frames and get my wife to start a little nursery business.  I might divide off four lots and build houses for our children, if they wanted. 

I’m a dreamer.  The reality is there is a huge problem with the whole idea… money.  So it was just a dream, and would remain a dream barring some miracle.  At the heart of that dream was my family, more specifically my grandfather Elias.  As I stood on that farm, I wasn’t just thinking of the house and buildings on the farm.  I thought of Elias. I think he would have been pleased that I had come to the conclusion that this place had value, that this place was more than just another piece of real estate.  He would have been pleased that I wanted to build on what he had started. 

Or would he have?  Perhaps if he had felt the farm was that important, he would have hung on to it.  Perhaps he concluded that there were more important things than this farm, more important things to build on.

A large part of what defined my grandfather as a man was his keen mind.  It was apparent to anyone who knew him.  That mind shaped his life.  And while I did not get a large chunk (much to my dismay), my inheritance from him was a small piece of that mind. 

I did not work for that inheritance.  It was given to me freely at birth, and was developed over the years with the encouragement of Elias, my parents, and many other influential people in my life who helped me appreciate the inheritance I had received.  While the value of the inheritance did not change, its worth became increasingly apparent to my own eyes as I aged and matured. 

Something WAS actually built on what my grandfather had started after all.

That inheritance, as much as I may appreciate it, is only on the level of earth, and has no eternal value.  But there is another inheritance we have been given.  The Old Testament speaks of an inheritance promised to the family of Abraham.  That promise of an inheritance continues on through the Bible, and in Ephesians 1:18, Paul prays “that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you will know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints …”

 What is that inheritance for believers today?  Some say it is salvation, some say heaven.  What is it that God has that is of utmost importance to pass on to us?  And at what point do we receive that inheritance?

That inheritance of which I speak becomes available at the moment we profess Christ as savior.  It is given to us due to the fact that we become children of God, grafted into His Family by the work of Christ Himself.  We receive the inheritance completely, all at once.  As we walk with Him, our eyes are increasingly opened to its value.  Other believers help us appreciate that inheritance and discover its riches in the midst of life together.

That inheritance is embodied in Christ Himself.  It is Christ that God has determined is of the utmost importance for us to have. 

Elias Tingle would be saddened to see me fretting over his farm and my inability to acquire it.  But no doubt his heart would rejoice in knowing that every day of my life is a testament of the real gift I have received from him. 

How does that compare to God seeing us living in the reality of our inheritance of Christ?  Nothing must warm His heart more than watching His children, His family, living in the understanding that we can live today enjoying the inheritance we have already received.

Note:  Since the writing of this story, my grandparent's farm was sold to a farmer who owns an adjoining property and happens to have been a classmate of mine.  He cleaned up the property, and is now tilling the land.  

©Brent A. Timmons 2011