Hay, Look
Thanksgiving was originally a time to be thankful for the new harvest and celebrate the friendship between the Native Americans and European settlers. One crop harvested in Nebraska is hay. If you are from a rural farming area, you probably know that there are two types of hay bales. Round hay bales are rolled up into huge round rolls of hay. This shape allows the bale to shed water more effectively when stored outdoors. However, to effectively hand feed this type of bale to animals, it must be unwrapped like a cinnamon bun, which can be challenging. Square bales are rectangular and are packed together in a mold. They don’t shed water well, but they are a lot easier to hand feed because they come apart into nice, manageable little slices called flakes. They can also be stacked more compactly because of their rectangular shape.
Recently I was driving through Nebraska and I saw a field full of hay bales, some stacked and others still scattered across the field. I pointed to the scattered bales and jokingly said to my friends, “look, some of the hay bales haven’t worked out their differences yet!” We laughed, but then we actually started thinking about my comment. Sometimes we as Christians won’t work out our differences and stay isolated, wrapped up in ourselves like those round bales, refusing to work together for God’s kingdom. While we are wrapped up in ourselves, we not only prevent ourselves from working toward our common goal of spreading the gospel, we also prevent ourselves from receiving the Holy Spirit.
Just as the round bales shed the rain, the Holy Spirit cannot penetrate deep into our souls when we are focused on ourselves. When we come together, we are more like square bales and the Holy Spirit can fall upon us fully. Just like square bales make for easy feeding, it is also easier to give of ourselves like Jesus did when we put aside self-centeredness.
Another note about hay bales: an individual hay bale in the field isn’t going to be very useful to anyone, but a stack of hay bales can be used to feed a whole herd of horses or provide shelter to animals. The church can also be a shelter to people, but only if we put aside self and our internal squabbles. Let’s ask God to make us more like a stack of square bales and less like a renegade round bale and thank Him for the perfect selfless example His Son gave us.
Jade Covel is a junior studying religion.