Soul Scientist

here, here on this one patch of ground

there’s been love given and grace found

all with one hope held, one faith pleaded

for those new mercies each morning needed

father after father after father

with a plow and a prayer

trusting God over reason

season after season after season

day after day after day

seeking our God and His will, His way

like Noah, our hearts to the soil

like Adam, our hands to the toil

eternal promises known and kept

tiny children lost, many tears wept

in and for full and empty fields alike

in and with work done and hopes right

there’s been far more than lessons taught

far more than cattle and hay sold or bought

important lessons of lifetimes handed down

in these fields and woods rich with sound

do you hear the singing? and more singing?

the cows, grasses, insects, killdeer bringing

praise to the One Who understands and heard

every chorus, every cry, every song, every bird

for the same God Who knew and arrayed

every lily, every sparrow, every child in every decade

was there at every birth, every death, every day

supplying every need as my forefathers prayed

look, there on the corner, a little white church

amidst old trees of oak, maple, and birch

where many have prayed, many have heard

the Gospel truth in so much love merged

sermons and songs of God Who spoke this ground into being

and sustains it still with all of us here as the needy

bereft of strength, lacking wisdom

yet skyward looking for that heavenly kingdom

Christ proclaimed in every ring of that old church bell

sermons preached for hope to know and fear to quell

a new life to claim, a new song to sing

in another sowing, another praying, another reaping

a harvest of hope and hay, cattle and children, too

now, two more generations to hold that faith tried and true

may they worship, live, know, and give

all to our God Who loves, graces, and forgives

That poem was a taste of what is often in my head and lives in my heart about my family’s farm. Nearly 175 years of many great-grandfathers, grandfathers, fathers, and children pointing to that land as where they came from.

A small piece of world requiring a big piece of faith.

And if you think about it, isn’t that what our lives as Christians really are? Each of us is a small piece in the world with a HUGE piece of Jesus in us. Greater is He Who is in us than he who is in the world (1 John 4:4 KJ21)

I know that truth deep in the soil of my soul.

Yet, I often find myself not living that truth. Instead, I’m often bowing to fear; believing only what I see; and being consumed by what isn’t eternal.

I’ve seen (or heard about) years of God’s provision in every particle of the soil I see under my feet and the soil I know in my soul. I’ve sung (and prayed) many an hour for God’s peace to be received in me and from me.

And I’ve tasted and seen and known God is good, all the time.

I know God’s goodness here.

I know God’s goodness now, too.

Even though I’m miles away from that patch of ground entrusted to my family’s care.

Yet His goodness somehow seems thicker, deeper, more present, more persistent on a cool, foggy, damp morning in the bottomland by the creek on that piece of ground God’s entrusted to my family with faith and for care.

Do you have a place like that in your life?

If so, please take a minute to thank God for that place and the people He’s placed in your life who live as examples to you of our Good God’s Goodness poured out in your life.

After that, please share that place and/or that people with us in the comments. For when you share, more and more of us can abide with you and with God in today’s gratitude and tomorrow’s goodness.

And when you share, please take a moment to pray for someone in your life needing more faith for the place they’re in now. If that person is you, please know, God knows and God is right there wherever you are.

written by and copyrighted to Beth Madison, Ph.D., 2026.