Episode #30: 2 Christopher - Chapter 9 - The sky

Jan,15 2026

<-#29: 2 Christopher - Chapter 8 - Prayer#31: 2 Christopher - Chapter 10 - Surviving ->

On signs given early, and the refusal to argue with the sky

9:1

Some years passed,

and my second child stirred in my wife's womb.

9:2

Life had grown wider,

and so had the fields.

9:3

One spring morning,

I saw Christopher walking the boundaries,

marking nothing,

yet remembering everything.

9:4

He spoke to those who kept the ledgers

and said,

"Next summer, we will change."

9:5

They asked,

"Change what?"

9:6

He answered,

"What we plant,

and where."

9:7

This troubled them,

for the soil had not moved

and the seed had always answered before.

9:8

One man said,

"The land is the same as it was."

9:9

Christopher replied,

"The land remembers.

The sky does not."

9:10

They asked him for reason.

9:11

He pointed upward and said,

"Watch the birds."

9:12

"For they nest earlier,

and lower,

and nearer to shade."

9:13

He pointed to the hedges and said,

"The rabbits no longer cross at noon."

9:14

He gestured toward the creek and said,

"Count the frogs."

9:15

Then he walked them to the river

and said nothing at first.

9:16

At last he said,

"It is half its width."

9:17

A man answered,

"It always changes."

9:18

Christopher replied,

"Yes.

But not always this early."

9:19

They said,

"The soil is still rich."

9:20

He answered,

"The soil is faithful.

The heat is not."

9:21

Then he spoke plainly and said,

"We will plant less wheat."

9:22

This angered them,

for wheat had fed them

and paid their debts.

9:23

He continued,

"We will plant sorghum instead,

for it fears the sun less."

9:24

"We will plant rye and barley

where the wind runs hardest."

9:25

"We will plant oats only where shade holds."

9:26

"And we will return alfalfa and clover

to the tired ground,

so that it may bind itself again."

9:27

One said,

"This is fear."

9:28

Christopher answered,

"No.

This is listening."

9:29

Another said,

"My father never planted this way."

9:30

Christopher replied,

"Your father did not live in this heat."

9:31

They asked,

"What if you are wrong?"

9:32

He said,

"Then we will eat humbly,

but we will eat."

9:33

"And if we are right," he added,

"others will ask why."

9:34

I watched them argue,

and saw that Christopher did not win them

with certainty,

but with calm.

9:35

Later, I asked him,

"How did you know?"

9:36

He said,

"I did not know.

I paid attention."

9:37

That night,

my child kicked,

and the wind did not cool.

9:38

And I understood that wisdom often arrives

before permission is granted.

<-#29: 2 Christopher - Chapter 8 - Prayer#31: 2 Christopher - Chapter 10 - Surviving ->