Down the hill below my house there is a shed that houses two ancient John Deere tractors. They are mine, and they mean a lot to me. The smaller one, an ‘H’, rolled off the assembly line in March of 1940, according to the serial number. The larger one, a ‘G’ is the largest tricycle-type tractor John Deere manufactured at the time and it was built in 1951, the year before they changed their series data from letters to numerals.
The H was the first tractor I had ever purchased, and I bought her cheap! She was in very bad shape and had been neglected for many years. My dad and I, with help from my brother, painstakingly restored her from stem to stern, including the engine. Now I’m not much of a mechanic, but my dad is, and between the three of us we did a reputable job in the process. We turned ‘junk’ into a work of art, researching everything from paint colors to the correct decals for both models, and in the end we had something we were all very proud of. Dad bought the other two models in the series, purchasing a 1951 ‘A’ a few years before I bought my H, and then completing the set by purchasing a ‘B’ not long afterward. Once we finished the job we began hauling them to tractor shows in north Mississippi and over in Louisiana to show them off. Of course we received many compliments; not only for the cosmetics but also for the engine work dad had performed. No modern tractor can compare to the ‘pop-pop’ sound of an old, two-cylinder John Deere.
Years went by and I fell in love with NASCAR, and the closest race to where I live is in Talladega, Alabama. The Talladega spring race fell roughly during the same weekend of the largest tractor show that we usually attended. As a result, my priorities changed, and I stopped going to the shows. The two tractors sat idle, and quickly began returning to the shape I originally found them in. If you go down there today, you’ll see that they still run very well, but the bright paint and the crisp vinyl decals are beginning to fade. Rust is also beginning to grow in areas that were once vibrant green and yellow.
As I was mowing the other day, I passed the barn and looked over at the tractors, and it brought to mind something that Jesus said. “Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal. But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal." I will never look back on restoring those tractors in regret, because we spent many happy hours together – a father and his two sons. However, I also understand the temporary nature of the process.
The things we do in our lives, the items we work toward and purchase from our labor, are all temporal and prone to wasting away. In fact, they are much akin to sand castles you see children building down at the beach. It’s sad to think that most of what we work hardest for with our labors will only be washed away by the unrelenting waters of time. At the same time it’s comforting to know that the work we do here on earth for Christ will last throughout all of eternity. Those things are not subject to wasting away by neither rust nor wear.
I’m getting older now and longer in the tooth, so to speak. And I have two sons of my own. Maybe one day I’ll be out there in the barn working with them, and once again those old John Deere tractors will shine and the air will be filled with their unique and timeless sound.
No comments:
Post a Comment