In 1913, a young man about twenty years old took a walking tour in the rural province of Provence (pronounced Pró-váhnce), in southern France. A walking tour is when you hike through the countryside with a backpack and sleeping bag, walking mainly on the back roads or trails and sleeping at campsites or local farms or villages.
Provence was a rather barren and desolate area at the time, as it had been almost totally denuded of trees due to over-cutting and too-intensive agriculture. The topsoil had then been washed away by the rains, as there were no tree roots to hold it in place.
Little farming was being done now because of the poor condition of the land. The villages were old and run-down and most of the villagers had moved elsewhere. Even the wildlife had fled, as without trees the protective undergrowth had thinned, food was scarce, and few streams and ponds remained.
The young hiker stopped one night at the humble cottage of a shepherd, who, although gray-haired and in his mid-fifties, was still strong and stalwart. The young man spent the night there, enjoying the shepherd’s hospitality, and he ended up staying several days with him.
The visitor observed with some curiosity that the shepherd spent his evening hours sorting nuts by lamplight-acorns, hazelnuts, chestnuts, and others. He would lay them down in a row, carefully examine them, cull out the bad ones, and, when he had finally finished his evening’s work, put the good nuts in a knapsack.
Then, as he led his sheep to graze the next day, he would plant the nuts along the way. While his sheep were pasturing in one area, he would walk several paces and thrust the end of his shepherd’s staff into the ground, making a shallow hole. Then he would drop in one of his nuts and use his foot to cover it over with earth. Then he would walk several paces more, push his staff into the dry ground, and drop in another nut. He spent all his daylight hours walking over this region of Provence as he grazed his sheep, each day covering a different area where there were few trees, planting nuts.
Watching this, the young man wondered what in the world the shepherd was trying to do, so he finally asked him.
"Well, young man," the shepherd replied, "I’m planting trees."
"But why?" the young visitor asked. "It will be years and years before these trees ever get to where they could do you any good! You might not even live long enough to see them grow!"
The shepherd replied, "Yes, but some day they’ll do somebody some good and they’ll help to restore this dry land. I may never see it, but perhaps my children will."
The young man marvelled at the shepherd’s foresight, vision, and unselfishness, that he was willing to prepare the land for future generations, even though he might never see the results or reap the benefits himself.
Twenty years later, when in his forties, the hiker once again visited this same area and was astounded at what he saw. One great valley was completely covered with a beautiful forest of all kinds of trees. They were young trees, of course, but trees nevertheless. Life had sprung forth all over the valley! The grass had grown much greener, the shrubbery and the wildlife had returned, the soil was moist again, and the farmers were again cultivating their fields.
He wondered what had happened to the old shepherd, and to his amazement found that he was still alive, hale and hearty, still living in his little cottage-and still sorting his nuts each evening.
Our visitor then learned that a delegation from the French Parliament had recently come down from Paris to investigate what seemed to be a new natural forest. They eventually learned that the entire forest had, in fact, been planted by this one shepherd as he watched his sheep, day by day and year after year. As a result, the whole valley was covered with beautiful young trees and underbrush. The delegation was so impressed and grateful to this shepherd for having reforested this entire area single-handedly that they persuaded Parliament to give him a special pension.
The visitor said he was amazed at the change, not only in the beautiful trees, but also in the revived agriculture, the renewed wildlife, and the beautiful lush grass and shrubbery. The little farms were thriving, and the villages seemed to have come to life again. What a contrast from when he had visited there twenty years before, when the villages had been run-down and abandoned!
Now all was thriving, just because of one man’s foresight, one man’s diligence, one man’s patience, one man’s sacrifice, one man’s faithfulness just to do what one man could do, day by day, day in and day out for a number of years.
But that’s not the end of the story. Remember how the young man told the shepherd, "You’ll never live to see if you accomplished anything good or not"? Well, as it turned out, the shepherd lived to be eighty-nine. He did live to see his forest fully-grown and beautiful, transforming an entire region. God blessed him with seeing the results of all his hard labours, how he had succeeded in changing his world. He lived to see what God had done through him.
It reminds me of what Paul wrote in the New Testament: "And let us not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart" (Galatians 6:9). So who knows? You too may live to see the day when the world is changed and was changed through you.
So if you’re sometimes discouraged with the world the way it is, don’t give up! We read that great empires and governments, armies and wars change the course of history and the face of the earth, so sometimes were discouraged and think, "Well, who am I? What can I do? It all seems so hopeless and impossible! It looks like there’s nothing that one person can do to change things for the better, so what’s the use of trying?"
But as proven by this humble shepherd, over a period of years one man can change the world! You may not be able to change the whole world, but you can change your part of the world. You can start with your own heart, your own mind, your own spirit, your own life.
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