So God Made a Sod Farmer

By Sarah Nolte (This is an adaptation of “So God Made a Farmer” by Paul Harvey.)

And on the 8th day, God looked down on this planned paradise and said, "They need beautiful green spaces to build communities, to raise property values, and decrease urban heat bubbles, spaces to throw a ball for the dog, and to play soccer with their kids.”

— so God made a sod farmer.

God said, "I need somebody willing to get up before dawn, harvest sod in the freezing cold and blazing heat; someone to work all day in the fields, drive tractors, eat supper, then go to their children’s games, musicals, and birthday parties.” — so God made a sod farmer.

"I need somebody with arms strong enough to stack a pallet of sod and yet gentle enough to hug and hold their grandchildren; somebody to call customers, take sales orders, do endless math problems in their head, tame cantankerous machinery, invent new solutions, to dream of new methods to fix problems others didn’t even realize they had. I need someone who tells an entire industry they could all be doing their jobs better - and then show them how to do it.” — so God made a sod farmer.

God said, "I need somebody willing to build a beautiful farm for decades, and watch it be destroyed by flood, then dry their eyes and say, ‘We’re keeping all the employees employed. Let’s move this entire operation to higher ground.’” — so God made a sod farmer.

God said, “I need somebody who can participate in research projects, volunteer to help friends, churches, and schools; notice that a machine isn’t running right by the sounds it makes, who can learn new technologies, who hires people with diversity in skills and pursues uniformity in the fields; who, during seeding time, will finish a forty-hour week by Tuesday evening, and just keep going. — so God made a sod farmer.

It had to be somebody who’d plow deep and straight and never cut corners; somebody to seed, weed, feed, lead, and mow and spray and disc and plant and stack and never, ever, leave a mess behind. It had to be someone to raise children who could run a forklift before they could drive a car and who could tell the difference between quack and crabgrass in kindergarten. And when the day is done, this farmer will still smile at a neighbor and say, “Sure, I’ll come take a look at your lawn.” — so God made a sod farmer.