George Washington Carver was born a slave and because of his frail disposition was expected to have a short life span. But he lived to be 79 years old and was known as the "Plant Doctor," having overcome discrimination and poverty and poor health to become one of the most respected and well-educated of all Americans. His tombstone reads: "He could have added fortune to fame, but caring for neither, he found happiness and honour in being helpful to the world."

A devout Christian, Carver once said, "When I was young, I said to God, God, tell me the mystery of the universe. But God answered, that knowledge is for me alone. So I said, God, tell me the mystery of the peanut. Then God said, well, George, that's more nearly your size." Carver found hundreds of uses for the peanut and soybeans and sweet potatoes helped to diversify the agriculture of the American South.

Carter believed that "Nature is an unlimited broadcasting station, through which God speaks to us every hour, if we only will tune in." God does speak to us. God strives to speak to us in many ways through many modes. Do we listen? Or are we too busy speaking - trying to advise the creator of the universe rather than trying to understand the peanut God has given to us to explore and develop? Will we hear Jesus' words or will we strive to make our voice the loudest in the din so our expertise might be recognized and God's world corrected according to our perceptions?