I just watched a great old Jimmy Stewart movie on television the other night. Shenandoah takes place during the mid 1800s. Charlie Anderson, played by Jimmy Stewart, is a widowed farmer and family patriarch who promised his dead wife he would raise their children as Christians. So he takes the family to church each Sunday and dutifully says this prayer before every meal, “Oh Lord, we cleared this land. We plowed it and sowed it and harvested. We cooked the harvest. It wouldn’t be here and we wouldn’t be eating it if we hadn’t done it all ourselves. We worked dog bone hard for every crumb and morsel but we thank you just the same Lord for this food we’re about to eat anyway.”
Well, it’s not exactly the model prayer mentioned in Matthew 6 is it? But in Charlie’s mind it suffices.
When the Civil War breaks out, Charlie faces quite a dilemma. He refuses to support the South because he’s opposed to slavery. He refuses to support the North because he is deeply opposed to war. Unfortunately he is located in the Shenandoah Valley in Virginia and remaining neutral is virtually impossible, especially after his youngest son is captured.
After a quest to find his son, getting involved in a war he wanted no part of, turmoil, strife, and hardship, what remains of the family is gathered once again around the table to eat. As they bow their heads Charlie starts to pray. It’s the same prayer but in a more humble spirit. In a raspy voice he barely chokes out the words, “Oh Lord, we cleared this land. We plowed it and sowed it and harvested. We cooked the harvest. It wouldn’t be here and we wouldn’t be eating it if we hadn’t done it all ourselves.” When he says the word “ourselves,” he can say no more. He leaves the table holding back his tears and goes to his wife’s grave on a hill above the farmhouse.
Charlie learned some hard lessons. He learned he couldn’t always control everything that happened in his life. He also learned a lesson we all struggle to learn. We don’t do it all ourselves.
It’s sad that we don’t see that until we are faced with trials we can’t control. I wonder if we aren’t sometimes guilty of praying that first prayer – paying God homage but secretly thinking we are doing it all. Maybe we can get by with that kind of prayer for a while, until God allows a trial to bring us down to reality.
Whether we believe it or not, God is in control. It may appear we are doing all the “dog bone hard work,” but there is a higher power who allows us to clear, plow, and sow. He provides sunshine and rain for the growth. And then if He so wills, allows us to harvest, cook, and eat.
Charlie learned the hard way that the Lord giveth and the Lord can taketh away. If we humbly realize that He is in charge, we spare ourselves from having to be humbled. The Lord can also giveth back again if He so chooses. After all, He is in control!
