Recently a strong young man found work in the summer with a local farmer who grew fruit ... He learned a lot! The Farmer had lots of land, and had cleared it with his tractor for a new Orchard, level, flat and laid out with expert knowledge.. The boy's job was to wrestle and drag the young fruit trees off a flatbed trailer way behind the Farmer on the tractor... The young trees had been shipped , bundled tightly in packs on pallets. "Here's what I need you to do.. I have a drill hooked to my tractor that runs off my 3-point power take-off... so I'll crawl down the rows drill'n the holes and you un-pack the trees and put them in the holes.. shove the dirt around with your foot and follow along on the trailer. Be sure to unpack them right and shake out the roots..." "*Sure.. no problem...simple.." The young man worked, did what he was told... and wished he had applied to be a Lifeguard at the beach <G> In fact he sort of daydreamed, looked at the sky and thought about anything but planting trees... in fact he thought the Farmer was sort of stupid for working in the dirt and that the task he was doing was menial.. The farmer thanked him and paid him off... Later in the Summer, he noticed that the trees he had planted that summer were not so good in comparison to the other trees planted before by the farmer...It didn't matter too much as it wasn't his farm. An old pick-up drove up to the house and the farmer asked to speak to the boy and his Dad... "As you know, my Farm is my prime livelihood, and I had invested heavy in the orchard you helped me plant... They don't seem to be growing like they should... so I dug up a couple at random. Son... just how many of my trees did you plant with the plastic wrap still attached to the roots?" A shot of PAIN HIT THE MIND OF THE YOUNG MAN... and he found it was very hard to speak clearly to this weathered man... but from somewhere he replied: "...all of them, sir ahhh.. I didn't think..or ah I thought the stuff would bio-degrade or rot" The Farmer shifted and looked the young man in the eye..the Old man's eyes got sort of "watered" and his face a bit red.... "Is that right..." (*The boy knew he was gonna get it hard!) "I got a problem, and it's basically this..I thought I told you to un-pack the trees and shake out the roots.. and now they may not be dead but they sure ain't growing... It seemes what was just a simple task has become a major problem, and I wondered... between you and yur Dad what we should do about it?" The silence around the men pulsated with emotional waves of embareassment and shock at the event. The boy spoke...a waterfall of thoughts was turning in his head. "Well sir.. whatever you see fit..." *Well.. fit for me is to put the situation right, I need your help and also share the responsibility of the mistake... It's a blow... but if we can put it behind us, and learn from it... we'll be the better. I say we work first light to dig up the trees and unpack the root ball back into the hole with some fertilizer and water 'em down good.. First light for me is 4am.. can I count on your help? *Dad spoke... "You can count on him to be there ready..." =================================================================== Rangers.. How many of you felt the shock...that boy felt? Was the boy responsible for his actions? Was he "obligated to help the Farmer?" How much of what the boy wanted, or thought played a role in what the outcome was? How would the "story" change if it were that the boy was a "Royal Ranger".... *Think about the fruit trees and tell me if they hold a *Spiritual lesson... For example... Is there something in us that keeps us from growing in the Lord? What else? Cdr.Duane -=A=- _______ To unsubscribe, send "unsubscribe rangernet" to [EMAIL PROTECTED] "Eat the hay & spit out the sticks! - A#1's mule" RTKB&G4JC! http://rangernet.org Autoresponder: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
