The Farmer and His Field

Our dependence on God shows the relationship we have with him. In the movie Gladiator, Maximus, though he is at first a general and then later a gladiator, at heart he is a farmer. And so, throughout the movie— usually before a battle—he kneels down, grabs a handful of dirt, smells it, tastes it, and then throws it into the air. What he is doing is seeing if the soil is good for growing crops. There is something very intimate about that action. Usually, if you find yourself around someone who gardens a lot, they have an intimate familiarity with their plants’ needs, quirks, and so on. It’s like that with us and God. There is an intimate relationship that develops over time between us and our heavenly Father.