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I saw a man on a red old tractor.  He had no shirt on as he sported a deep, deep dark tan.  Now I didn’t know when the first day of spring came and he decided to take his shirt off.  Maybe it was when he was tilling the ground for the first time.  Farmers I know love that first tilling drinking in the fragrance.  You know that soil has a fragrance!  Farmers will tell you that the best thing is getting out in the spring and tilling the soil after winter.

 

Maybe it was when he went out to till the ground for the first time that he took off his shirt and exposed that lily white skin to the sun.  Maybe he wasn’t very careful and got burnt badly.  Maybe his lily white skin turned lobster red. Ouch!  I didn’t know how long it took him to get that tan that he finally sported, but I do know this... I have no question in my mind about this whatsoever: God loved that man as much when his skin was lily white or like the first snow of winter, or when his skin was

red–burned like a lobster, or when it was dark, dark brown.  There was no variation in the love of God for that man on the basis of the color of his skin.

 

I imagined myself–I really did, as I drove that detour to Litchfield, I imagined myself as the man on that red old tractor.  And I really did imagine the Lord Jesus coming out to meet me as I road on that old tractor.  In my mind He came up the rise of a hill, so His head came up first and then His body.  It was almost as if it were

resurrection day and Jesus was coming right out of the soil.

 

He had a red sash about His waist.  I don’t know why He had a red sash, perhaps its because as a kid I saw Him enough times in pictures wearing a red sash.  The wind, too, was blowing hard against Him and He just glistened... just glistened in my mind.  He took big steps, high steps, as He walked through the field of grain.  And I said to Him as he stopped by the tractor, “Lord, did you come for me?”

 

He said “David, yes, I came for you.”

 

I said, “Lord, I’m not worthy!”

 

He said, “Worthy, David?  Worthiness has nothing to do with it.  I came to you when you were stuck in sin.  I came to you when you were at the seminary.  I came for you when you were lonely and single, and I came for you when you were married and your children were born.  I came for you when you were strong and healthy and I came for you when you were weak.  I’ve come for you in all your rich moments and all your worldly poverty.”

 

Then He looked to the west.  “I’m also going on to your city for others.  Don’t get me wrong, David, if you were the only person–the only, solitary person on this planet, I

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