James Lochman set the large basket in front of me on the table as the children gathered close all with wide open eyes peering into the basket. Jesse pulled out the first large arrowhead. "I found this one," he said while he gently place it in my hand. I felt the point of the arrowhead sharp against my finger and it's chiseled sides smooth like they'd been meticulously sanded. The basket was full of other carefully crafted masterpieces and one by one I felt through all of them, in awe of the number and quality of the arrowheads. There were also three axe heads, each perfectly balanced and still sharp even after many years burried under the ground.

James explained that about five years ago his brother and he were plowing the top ridge of their land, getting ready to plant alfalfa for the coming season. As he was walking behind the plow he spotted a sharp looking stone in the newly turned soil and he bent down to find the first arrowhead. From then on as they would plow the field, they would also search the ground for these curious elements that told the history of the hillside. They had found one after another until their collection was quite impressive.

They weren't sure why they had found so many, but there were many well developed theories. One theory was that the hillside had been a burial ground where the indians laid their ancestors to rest. Another theory was that there had been a battle there and thats why so many arrowheads were lying in one particular area. There was the guess that it was just a common camping ground and over hundreds of years the arrowheads had just collected. This also would better explain the massive axe heads. James had taken the axe heads down to a specialist, who had explained how they were strapped to a carved wooden handle with leather strips.

I think this story can tell us a lot about the church and how we interact with tradition and history.

Notice how the arrowheads were found. Not by simply walking around searching for them, and hoping to happen upon them. Instead they were working for the future. Preparing the fields for a harvest. While turning over the land that had layed the same for many years in order that it may grow something, they had searched for these pieces of the lands history.

The church should be focused the same way. The field should not be left dormant. We should be preparing it to be planted. We should be working our land, our history, turning it over so that it is valuable again. It's through this process that in our land, our history, we will find arrowheads, precious markers of what happened before.

We don't leave the field empty, and we don't toss the arrowheads aside. Instead we interact with both, using them to guide us as we work towards His harvest.