"Others Have Done The Hard Work..."

This morning as I was reading through the Gospel of John, Jesus' words in chapter 4 (vs.38b) brought a sense of gratitude for the generations of heritage that I enjoy.

The verse reads, "Others have done the hard work, and you have reaped the benefits of their labor."

I sit in my wing back chair with footstool in front, a pup by my side in relative opulence as a result of a dad and mom who labored through life with four young'ns to feed, with no assurance of income, except what at times, both working side hustles could provide.

Neither of them had parents they could fall back upon if times got rough.

On my Mom's side, her parents were early divorced, if ever married. Her dad left the state perhaps before her birth, only to return occasionally when Mom became desperate. Her mom, only late in life surrendering her life to Christ, even though the daughter of a Pentecostal pastor. Himself, beginning who his ministry on horseback throughout the Smoky Mountains.

The Reverend, Great-grandpa Farmer whose ordination papers I have in safe keeping, soon planted a church in Statesville, for which my dad's father sawed the timbers required for construction.

The irony, likely providence, was that my dad's father and family, having just lost their large farm to taxes during the Great Depression, with only a portable sawmill salvaged in the move, relocated to an old rent house, diagonal across the street from the land upon which the church would be built. Go figure!

At that time, my mom was being raised by her grandfather, later playing piano at the church. Dad, his family then unchurched, "saw a pretty girl across the street" and decided he'd attend. His sister would later marry the pastor's son, and Dad at age 18 would marry the granddaughter, Peggy, my mom, then age 16.

After WWII, Dad & Mom would give their lives to serving Christ, raising us four kids in a hand to mouth blue collar struggle, until I was well into my teens.

He would by then have launched Bost Brother's Masonry. Quite the entrepreneur and role model!

I recall watching, (and laboring) as Dad then built homes and churches, the latter as a volunteer, throughout his life.

What a mentor for this prodigal, who would later at age 25, come to Christ in Dad's living room!

I have attempted to honor him in a previous book, "The Christ I Came To Know". www.johnthecatalyst.com/books