Are you tired? Frustrated? Feeling like your cup is empty? How about a story?
Tomatoes, corn, cucumbers, squash, peas, and watermelon. The old farmer could take a few seeds, cow patties, fish guts, and black dirt and grow vegetables that were legendary. People would come from miles around to figure out what his secret was.
“Ohhh, I don’t know. You plant ‘em. Water ‘em. Put a little 10-10-10 on ‘em. God does the rest with sunshine and rain.”
HIs humility was a far cry from the Calgon ancient Chinese secret that wannabe farmers were hoping to discover.
He patrolled his garden like the Terminator armed with “white powder poison” looking to murder tomato worms that might dare to set multiple feet on his plants. Don’t touch the white powder was his general rule and he would converse this with anyone that followed along, including his dog. But today was different. Today he was entertaining his dog and a boy.
“How many tomatoes will it grow?” The wide-eyed snaggle tooth boy would say.
“Not sure. We’ll do our part. God will do His part. We’ll take what we can get.”
The boy looked from one end of the row to the next. “I hope it’s a million of them!”
The old man chuckled and grinned. He leaned back and spit tobacco juice that cleared the plants with the accuracy of a Marine sniper.
“You’ll have to help me gather them if we get that many.”
“You can sell them and get rich, “ the boy shouted. “I’ll be your helper!”
“We can be partners, but I’m already pretty rich. I don’t need to sell tomatoes for that,” the old man said.
The boy was puzzled. “Why do you live in a small house if you are rich?”
“Well… I’m not rich with money. I’m rich with family. With love. With something that money can’t buy. When I was a boy like you, I didn’t have much, but really, nobody else did either. At least the people I knew. I went to school and worked. That’s all we knew to do. I had to quit school to help with things at home. Brother went off to war and I quickly became a young man. Things got real hard. Nobody had work. Nobody had money. Sometimes we was hungry, but we had each other. Still, it was hard living day to day. It was cold in the winter. We could see the train go by through the cracks in the wall. We could see the chickens walking under the house through cracks in the floor. My brothers and I would find trash and old newspapers and stuff in the cracks to keep the heat in.”
The boy was mesmerized. He sat quietly worshiping the ground the old farmer walked on. He was hooked by the story and begged for more.
“Well, there wutn’t no air conditioner either. It got hot in those summer days, so we would pull out the papers from the cracks in the wall and open the doors. We farmed all day. Sometimes at night, too. We took time for church on Sunday. We got up early and walked to it. You ain’t never heard no prayers today like you heard back then. Folks was in bad shape. It came a time where it just wouldn’t rain. It didn’t rain for a long time. The farm was dying and we would probably die with it. I got to kinda hating life and how it was going for me and all the folks I loved. I was kickin’ around the barn one day and I was feelin’ really low. I started talkin’ to God and I was beggin’ for rain. I don’t know why I did it, but there was an old tin cup there on the post. I picked it up and I thought about that empty cup for a minute. Felt like my heart was empty, too. Finally, I fell to my knees. I reckon I got to cryin’ a little bit and I shouted out to God. I said, ‘Lord, I am hurting and I need you.’ It was quiet in that old barn, so I held up that empty cup and I said, ‘I am Yours if You’ll have me. Fill my cup.’ Boy, let me tell you… a peace come over me. I knew I was forgiven for being angry and frustrated. And I can tell you my cup has been full ever since.”
“What happened then, Pa?”
“Well, I got up off my knees and about had a heart attack because there was a loud clap of thunder. It seems a storm had blown up while I was busy prayin’ in that barn and I took off runnin’ to the house. It fell a flood that day. I mean, it was a real frog strangler. But that lightning had scared me so bad that I left the cup on the hitching post when I ran to the house. When I came out the next day, that old cup was filled to the brim with rain water. I think God was showin’ me that He was going to keep my cup full. So, Tom, I ain’t got no real money. Worked hard all my life, but I got all that matters.”
I’ve carried that story in my heart for a long time because that little boy was me and that old farmer was a man named Walter Patrick.
The legacy of Walter Patrick. My Papa. A farmer, carpenter, tobacco chewer, biscuit and gravy connoisseur, avid Atlanta Braves fan, and Grandfather extraordinaire. A man who poured into my cup because his cup was full.
When my Pa left this world a few years ago and went to heaven, I searched his work shed to see if he still had that old tin cup. I never found it. Oh, how many times have I wished that I could have found that tin cup! But, then again, I carry that cup with me in my heart. And it’s full. It’s dripping over the brim and that water reminds me of what my God has done for me. I’m reminded of how many times He has gone before me and made a way. Most of all, He’s gone before me and sacrificed Himself on a cross so that a guy like me could be forgiven.
I am grateful. Walter Patrick was, too.
Empty cup? Nah, my cup is full. How about yours?
