“Good fences make good neighbours”

All our springer heifers disappeared without a trace one morning!

No, they hadn’t been stolen, neither had they just gone to the next field. They’d truly gone. I eventually found them all mixed up with a neighbour’s herd. Please don’t wonder was it our poor grass? Just a moment’s sympathy please, for the whole hassle of trying to separate them and getting them back, and then finding the small breach in the hedge where they got through.

One of the joys of the farm at this time of year is watching the hedges sprout into green new life. It’s also the time to get out with a post or two, a roll of wire, a sledge hammer and a bag of staples to mend those gaps before stock goes out. Fencing is so necessary - good old hedges, barbed wire, sheep wire, or of course, the movable electric fence.

All of us who own land (or a small garden) want to know where ‘mine ends’ and ‘yours begins’. To have good fences is also about respect and honouring what is ours and our neighbours. It got me thinking about good fences. The American poet, Robert Frost, gave us this well-known line, “Good fences make good neighbours”. But surely a fence says ‘Keep Out!’ How could that be good? Farmers know of course that fences are good, even vital.

God has boundaries too. In the Bible there are times God says, in effect, ‘so far and no further.’ He is holy and perfect in all His ways and being. When God’s people in the ancient world came to worship Him at the Temple in Jerusalem, they would have been separated from the Holy of Holies by a huge curtain. Behind it the Ark of the Covenant rested. The curtain was there for a reason.

What God was saying was, ‘you need be perfect to come in here’. As a result, no-one could enter, apart from the High Priest alone, and then, only once a year to make a sacrifice for the sins of the people. It was a very solemn and fearful day. Would people actually, really be forgiven?

Wouldn’t it be incredibly sad if that is how it would always have to be? On Good Friday, as Jesus died on the cross, and cried out “It is finished” (John 19:30), something amazing happened. That huge Temple curtain, keeping us from God’s presence, was torn in two - from top to bottom.

Today “…we have a great high priest who has gone to heaven, Jesus the Son of God... For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses. Instead, we have one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet he never sinned. So let us keep on coming boldly to the throne of grace, so that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need” (Hebrews 4:14-16) (International Standard Version).

Jesus is saying loud and clear, ‘there is no fence keeping us away from God any-more’. He has opened up the way in, where imperfect people can be forgiven and come into His presence. We don’t need to be afraid that we would be trespassing, we come just as we are. He wants to forgive and change us, for us to live with Him forever - on His side of the fence!

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 any of the issues raised in this article, please email Rev. Kenny Hanna at [email protected] or call him on 028 9753 1234.