Coming to our ‘census’

Every fortnight people from a farming background, or who have a heart for the countryside, offer a personal reflection on faith and rural life. They hope that you will be encouraged by it.

My letter rack annoys me at times.

Stuffed full of letters, or forms to be filled in, I’m sure we have all had times when we have said to ourselves, “If I ever have to look at another form again, I will go mad!”

But can I say thanks for all your form filling, as I enjoy reading the annual census for agriculture in Northern Ireland, which comes out from DAERA.

Our farm census is one of the oldest in the world and this year it is in online form for the first time in 173 years!

I’ve just learned, for example, that ‘For every person in Northern Ireland there are 14 chickens, one cow, one sheep and a third of a pig.’

Unsurprisingly we find that we have ever more larger farm units.

Surprisingly, we also learn that we’ve even more ‘part time’ farmers – male and female - who get out to their day jobs having got up at an unearthly hour to see to their animals.

Then, returning home tired after a full day’s work, they do it all again! Farming for the love of it.

To have a census we have to count everything on the farm - including all who work there.

Counting animals is a practice that we have been at for a long time.

Recorded in Luke 15: 3-7, Jesus told a parable about a farmer who had 100 sheep, but when he did the head count, there was only 99. Some businesses might suggest that he should be thankful that he still had 99!

But farmers don’t think that way, one is not just collateral loss. Leaving the 99, this particular shepherd goes looking for the lost one.

On today’s farm, it would probably mean jumping on a quad and sticking on a trailer. In Bible times, he would have gone out on foot, looking in every place, calling as he went – even if the weather is atrocious. This is what it means to be a good shepherd.

Searching, he hears a weak bleating and there’s his sheep, caught in a hedge - she’s found. She is weak, so he hurls her over his strong shoulders and they head for home.

Arriving back, a party is called for. Jesus tells us, ‘“Then he calls his friends and neighbours together and says, ‘Rejoice with me; I have found my lost sheep.’ I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over 99 righteous persons who do not need to repent”’ Luke 15: 6-7.

It is a good thing to remember that God still counts – He even knows the number of hairs on your head! (Luke 12:7).

We may all feel lost in the confusion of these deeply uncertain times, but it’s worse to feel lost from God.

It does not have to stay this way: Jesus is still the ‘Good Shepherd’ and the Shepherd is still looking and is still calling out for us. If only we will let Him rescue us.

That’s why the Good Shepherd came, lived, died and rose again. Only when we are found by Him, saved and brought home by Him, can the ‘census’ be complete!

* Ian was brought up on a dairy farm near Limavady. He was a minister in Ballyroney and Drumlee congregations in south Down, and latterly Moneydig Presbyterian in County Londonderry.

Due to a serious cancer diagnosis, Ian has had to retire from active ministry and now provides counselling and support to others with cancer.

If you would like to talk to someone about this article, please email Rev. Kenny Hanna at [email protected] or call him on 028 9753 1234