Man Gives His Wife Manure for a Birthday GiftYet another great story from Iowa, and believe me – it’s true! A farmer really wanted to surprise his wife with the perfect birthday gift, so he spent three hours with his tractor one morning, and he used thousands of pounds of fresh cow manure to spell, “Happy Birthday, Love You” on a hillside area near the couple’s house.
The farmer, Dick Kleis (of Zwingle, Iowa) had apparently thought long and hard about how to express his love in the best way that he knew how, and he later even gave a little advice for other birthday-wishers who might want to follow in his footsteps, as he said, “Any manure will work, but the good, soft, gushy, warm stuff works the best. It kind of melts the snow away.”
Would you believe that Carole Kleis, the farmer’s wife, thought the birthday wish was the best thing in the world! It’s true! Moreover, she’s already thinking of ways to “top” her husband’s gesture when his birthday rolls around this May!
In my opinion, the moral of the story is simply this: It doesn’t so much matter HOW and with WHAT you express your love and adoration as it does the genuine heart of the person doing the expressing! Just as this farmer expressed his love towards his wife with something most people would consider laughable or offensive, his wife nevertheless thought it was absolutely wonderful! It was the perfect gift, not because of WHAT it was, but because of the HEART within the expresser!
The same is true when God views our expressions of love and adoration towards him! Sometimes, in our attempts to heap our love and praise on God, we may get the feeling that he might view our prayerful words, singing, and other expressions as something “a little left to be desired” (at best) or even downright “manure,” but on the contrary, when our expressions come from a genuine heart that desires to love and praise God, he inhabits our praises and receives our expressions with the utmost of joy!
I guess God’s view towards us and our genuine expressions towards him are germane to the way a mother goes wild when her young child gives her a hand-made gift he made for her in Sunday School. While the gift may look downright sloppy, juvenile, and worthless – the mother no doubt cherishes her prize possession and hangs it on the refrigerator for all to see. She wouldn’t sell it for a thousand dollars! Simply because her child took what little he had, spent some precious time, and expressed his love for his mom in the best way he knew how!
When we do likewise, concerning our expressions towards God, he “goes wild” as well! When we “love the Lord with ALL of our heart, with ALL of our soul, and with ALL of our mind” (Matthew 22:37), God gets super-excited and happy … and then, like the farmer’s wife, God goes on a quest to show us how much greater his love is for us!
Put God on a quest, why don’t you! Express to him your love and adoration in the best way you know how, and don’t think twice about it being sub par (because, in HIS book, it’s NOT)! He cherishes our fumbled words, our off-key singing, and our less-than-flattering attempts to give him props … when it comes from a genuine heart!
