Good News for the countryside: The blessing of a good covering

​Our grandson is two-years-old and it seems like so many little boys he has a fascination for tractors. At the moment it doesn’t matter to him what colour the tractor is, red, blue, or green, it just needs to be a tractor. During these days of summer there are plenty of tractors going up and down the road passing the front of the house, so he is a happy boy.

On many farms during silage season, there will be a fleet of tractors making a visit to gather in the grass that will be used to feed the animals during the winter months. I’m sure there are many people reading this who will remember when gathering in the silage in took days, and maybe even a week or more. Yet today so often the silage contractor appears early in the morning and leaves that same evening - weather permitting of course.

When the last vehicle leaves the yard and the silo pit is full of grass, the work isn’t complete.

In some ways the hard work has yet to start. The silo needs to be covered and secured. I don’t know of anyone who looks forward to this job, particularly if tyres are used to seal and secure the plastic sheets. This year, with the wet weather, the tyres were filled with water, so not only was it hard work, it was also dirty and wet work.

Yet how important is the work of covering, sealing, and securing the silo? It’s very important, because under the cover the fermentation process takes place to produce the nutritious silage that will feed the stock through the winter.

In Psalm 32:1 we read, “Blessed is the one whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered.” The word that is used here for ‘forgiven’ means ‘lifted up and carried away’, the word for ‘covered’ means ‘concealed’, ‘hidden from sight’.

This is good news! Even though we have “all sinned and come short of the glory of God”, as the Apostle Paul writes in Romans 3:23, there is hope for us and there is forgiveness, because God, as it were, picks up our sin and carries it away. He covers it, conceals it, which simply means that the record of our sin is blotted out.

But how is this possible? The answer is Jesus. God sent His Son to die on the cross. Jesus took away our sins, carrying its burden on Himself. The work of Jesus on the cross covers our sin. Paul goes on to tell us, “In Him (Jesus) we have redemption through His blood the forgiveness of sins in accordance with the riches of God’s grace…” (Ephesians 1:7). The words of the hymn by Rev J Wilbur Chapman, sum up this truth so well, “Living He loved me, dying He saved me, buried He carried my sins far away, rising He justified freely for ever, One day He’s coming: Oh Glorious day.”

It is only by simply trusting the Lord Jesus that we can all know the blessing of our sins forgiven and that they are covered for eternity. So, after the silage is gathered in, and you have that hard task of covering what will be such a blessing this winter – it is my prayer that you will be reminded of how your sins can also be covered, and you ask Jesus to cover them.

Robin Fairbairn is pastor/evangelist with Ballygowan Presbyterian Church in County Down and also works as ministry development officer with The Good Book Company. He lives in the country and has been farming every Saturday for more years than he cares to admit.

If you would like to talk to someone about any of the issues raised in this article, please email Rev Kenny Hanna, PCI’s Rural Chaplain at [email protected] or call him on 07938 488 372.