God's Plans, and Ours

A few years ago, I attended a week-long theology workshop taught by a very holy and learned priest. One subject had to do with Natural Law foundations for morality, and proofs from natural reason for the existence of God. At one point, the priest posed a question to us: "How many of the Ten Commandments are knowable from natural reason alone?"

Various people threw out various guesses, ranging from "six" to "all ten." The priest shook his head after each one, and we ran out of guesses. Then, with a wry smile, he gave us the answer: "Nine and a half."

"Huh?" we collectively responded. "What's the 'half'?"

Still giving the wry smile, he explained, "We can know from natural reason that human beings need a day of rest, but we need God to reveal to us which one it should be."

As I explained in one of this blog's earliest posts, we've grown much more appreciative --- and much more observant --- of Sunday as a day of rest. We're not Pharisaical about it, but we try to avoid doing any kind of hard labor or other work that isn't strictly necessary. Livestock certainly need to be cared for on Sundays, but the garden certainly doesn't need to be weeded and laundry almost never needs to be washed. We try to spend our time seeing and hanging out with extended family, taking bike rides with the kids, catching up on some reading, or having other families over for dinner. The idea is to avoid shopping for anything but emergency items, trying to clear backlogs of work, and other kinds of "running around".

This weekend, an unfortunate necessity loomed over our Sunday: Haying. Thanks to a timely application of fertilizer last fall, we have a bumper crop of hay this spring. We hire a local farm family to cut it, flip it, rake it, and bale it; we assist with hauling it to the barn and stacking it. The farmer did the cutting late last week, and thanks to some hot weather it was nearly dry enough to bale yesterday afternoon.

Nearly dry enough, but not quite. The hay was so thick on the ground, it hadn't all dried even after flipping and raking. But by his estimation, Monday might be too late; the hay could be so dry, much of it would crumble into dust and be lost.

We reluctantly decided that we'd better bale the hay on Sunday afternoon. In this case, as backbreaking and exhausting as the work is, it was necessary if we were to feed the livestock. We decided that this week, our "day of rest" would be Monday.

We decided. But, as it turns out, God had other plans. I awakened this morning, threw back the bedroom curtains, and observed a surprise: rain. Not a hard rain, but the ground was definitely wet. Going out to take care of chores, there was definitely a steady drizzle. Everything, including those five acres of neatly-raked and ready-to-bale hay, was wet. Not soaking wet. Not we're-going-to-lose-it-to-rot wet. But definitely too wet to bale today.

Fortunately, the drizzle has already let up, and it's supposed to be sunny and warm all afternoon and Monday. It's not supposed to rain again until Tuesday. I suppose we'll let the top of the hay dry today, flip it, allow the other side to dry Monday, and bale it Monday afternoon.
Regardless, it's looking like Sunday will indeed be our day of rest this week. And thank God for that.