Dispatches from America - When A Sign Says God Love You

“GOD LOVES YOU” reads the bright pink sign, planted right next to the romaine lettuce and green onions at my local farmers market.

At first glance, it seems random. Mixed messages. Religion and vegetables don’t usually share table space. But the longer I stand at this stall, the more it makes perfect sense.

This farmer isn’t just selling vegetables. He’s sharing his whole worldview. His faith, his food, his philosophy—all tangled together on one weathered wooden table. No corporate HR department told him to keep beliefs separate from business. No marketing consultant advised him to stay neutral.

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I watched a woman pause at the sign. She smiled, picked up lettuce, and told her friend, “I like shopping here. You know who you’re buying from.”

That’s what we’ve lost in most commerce. We’ve professionalized everything. Separated spiritual from commercial, personal from professional. Created bland retail where no one’s authentic self appears. Where employees recite scripts and vendors follow templates. Where the only acceptable message is price.

But farmers markets remember something essential: people aren’t just producers and consumers; we’re whole humans with whole belief systems. Values that inform everything we do, including how we grow food and why we sell it.

That farmer grows lettuce because he needs income, sure. But also, because he believes in feeding people. In honest work. In stewardship of land. In community. And yes, in God’s love. These aren’t separate motivations; they’re woven together in how he farms and why he shows up every Saturday

.The pink sign doesn’t hurt sales. It explains them. This isn’t just agriculture for profit. This is agriculture with purpose. Grown by someone who believes in something beyond margins. Someone who thinks feeding people and loving people are the same calling.

Maybe that’s what we’re hungry for at farmers markets. Not just food, but food grown by whole people. Not just transactions, but transactions with humanity attached. Not just products, but products that come with values we can see and decide whether we share.

And I think that’s why I keep coming back.

So what do you think? What are you selling alongside what you’re selling?

Let me know on jamesabrown.net. On that note, I’m James A. Brown, and as always, be well.

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