Alden farmer is sweepstakes winner

said crop land is split about evenly between corn and soybeans. “We used to raise some beef cattle,” he said, “but we turned that over to my brother’s grandson.”

Mathiason added crop yields were good in 2022. “We’ve actually had two or three good years,” he admitted. “We’re very fortunate. We weren’t affected by drought … in fact we might have had too much rain. The soil is heavy around here.”

Bob and his wife Cindy have been married 40 years and have two grown daughters who live out of state. “They like to come back,” Bob said. “They like the farm.”

As we work the soil of this plot of land, furrowing, planting, waiting, and harvesting may such acts become to us a living parable, a prayer acted out rather than spoken. As we co-labor with you and with your creation to produce a beneficial harvest, may we find in such toil a kind of rest. May this plot of ground become a hallowed space and these hours a sacred time for reflection, for conversation with neighbors, friends, and family, and for fellowship with you, O Lord. Through our tending of the land, renew our tired hopes. As we cultivate gentle order, planting, tending, and protecting, so cultivate and train our wayward hearts,

O Lord, that rooted in you the forms of our lives might spread in winsome witness, maturing to bear the good fruit of grace expressed in acts of compassionate love.

Walk with us now, O Lord, in the stillness of this tilled and quiet space, that when we venture again into the still fertile land of your world, we might be prepared to offer our lives as a true and nourishing provision to all who hunger for mercy and hope and meaning, a true and nourishing provision to all who hunger for you, O God. Lord, let our labors in these fields be fruitful.

Lord, let our labors in these fields be blessed. Amen.

Douglas Kaine McKelvey is a poet, lyricist, author and screenwriter who lives in Tennessee. He has written hundreds of lyrics for artists such as Kenny Rogers and Switchfoot. In addition, he has written several liturgy books to encourage the body of Christ to practice the awareness of the presence of God in ordinary places.

Whitney Nesse is a sixth-generation livestock farmer who is deeply rooted in her faith and family. She writes from her central Minnesota farm. v

Mathiason