40 Years Planted
By John W. Vander Velden
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June 18th 1982 was the day I moved into a
house in rural Marshall County. It is the residence I now share with my beloved
Jackie and our small but very dear dog Cloey. Today, Saturday marks forty years
that I have lived within these walls. I might have said beneath this roof, but
for all points and purposes the roof has been replaced back in 2007 or so.
In this world where everyone seems so mobile that I
have remained planted so securely in this particular location seems unusual. I was
thirty when I moved here, the math is not difficult to guess what number
describes my age today. But what kept me in this physical place is really
simple. My profession’s demands for the most part held me near the source of
those responsibilities.
But now that I am retired
I can live whereever I choose. Providing Jackie agrees. I couldn’t imagine
living somewhere apart from her. Yet all the same I like where I am living―for
the most part. There is no perfect place, no perfect house, but this one’s not
so bad. We have made it comfortable, to our liking. It is easy for us to go
from here to the places that need our attention. We have friends nearby. And
the folks next door are not next door, if you get my meaning.
I am planted here on this acre of hillside, with
farmland on my south and east. I am planted here and over the years have
managed to live the largest part of my life here.
I guess what I am saying is that I am content in the
place I am planted and hope to remains so for a few more years. Content is, in
my opinion, a decision made. It is different than being deliriously happy. For
that kind of happiness is often temporary. I can’t imagine being deliriously
happy for forty years.
No, life is primarily made up of ordinary days. But in truth there is something outstanding in each
of those ordinary days if we take the
time to consider them.
I have learned a great deal about myself during the
span of those years. And I have been induced to learn a great deal about my
faith by the people in my life, by the circumstances I have faced, by my successes
during that time, by my failures as well, and through the sorrows that each
life will endure, mine included.
I learned that instead of looking for God, I could see
Him everywhere I looked. In the rising sun. In the star filled night sky. In a snowflake.
In a flowing stream. In the face of my newborn son. I now understand that God is not in some far off place, locked within
the walls of some sanctuary, or high above in the halls filled with angels, God
is here and everywhere, now and always. God shares the space I tread, even
within the walls of this modest house. He is nearer than my next breath.
I have come to recognize that I am only human. But
being human means I carry both greatness and insignificance. I have been
blessed with talents and weaknesses. I am no more than others. But by the same
token I am not, when taken as a whole, inferior to anyone. I am, as you are, a
child of God. But I am also saved from myself, by the grace that comes from
Christ.
And so I am as a seed planted and I have grown these forty
years and continue to grow for whatever time God has allotted. Hopefully you
have grown during your years as well.
(616 Words) 6-18-2022
