This past spring I planted a small garden in the back yard of the parsonage. I worked the ground, removed the rocks, pulled the weeds, spread the compost…I thought I had it perfect. Then I planted the seed.
Now we are near the time of harvest, and there is no fruit to be reaped. A series of natural events early on, including a late frost, made it so most of what I planted didn’t even sprout. What did sprout was nibbled on by rabbits, deer, and my wife’s dog that thinks it is a cow. So again, all my labor was fruitless.
On the same day that I toiled to plant my seed, my 2 year old daughter Melody took a bunch of pumpkin and cabbage seeds and scattered them in the compost pile. Within a month my back yard was overrun with pumpkin vines, and in the shadow of the pumpkin leaves multiple heads of cabbage were thriving. Now the pumpkins are almost ready to be harvested, and an early harvest at that.
One of the pastors who preceded me planted an unknown tree in the back yard years ago. Before this summer it never bore any fruit. One day while examining the pumpkins I looked up and saw something on the tree. I pulled it off and examined it, determining that it was a cherry. By the end of that week I had picked enough cherries for two pies from the previously fruitless tree.
Each of these plantings were the result of a seed. The seed sown without concern is resulting with a great harvest. The harvest from where someone else has sown is great. Yet the seed that I worked so hard to cultivate has not yielded anything substantial.
Jesus taught of the Word of God being seed sown on hard ground, stony ground, thorny ground and fallow ground. He never said God only intended the seed to be sown on fallow ground…He intended it to fall everywhere. As His hands we are not to choose which ground that we sow into, we are simply to sow. We can work the ground endlessly without a harvest…but we still sow the seed. We can reap a harvest where little work has been done…but we still sow the seed. We can reap a harvest where someone else has sown…but we must still sow the seed. God has not called us only to fallow soil, but He has called us to keep sowing the seed.
So keep sowing, and one day the reapers will overtake us, and what a wonderful day that will be.
Looking for someone who needs a pumpkin,
Darrell B. Jr.
And a child shall lead them…
As I read, I couldn’t help but think about my intent when I sow. When I sow do I think about how wonderful the harvest will be or do I think about how successful Jesse will be? Or, how will people see me if nothing appears? I wonder, what was in Melody’s “mind’s eye” as she spread those seeds around? Was there any doubt they would come up? Was there any expectation at all? Maybe it was just… “I’ve done what I’ve done. What’s next?” I want to be like a child when I plant. But will I ever?
By: Jesse on August 15, 2008
at 12:30 am
Thanks for the input Jesse. Oh to be like a child…
I think my problem was (is) I know how it worked in the garden in Oregon. I know how it worked in the garden in North Carolina. I even know how it worked on my tiny little lot in Tennessee…but it doesn’t seem to work the same in WV.
The compost pile stinks…but it is the most productive.
Melody recognizes there are pumpkins in the back yard, but she doesn’t realize that they are the result of her actions…she can’t yet comprehend it. She just simply knows Daddy gave her seed to do with as she would.
If I plant only for the harvest then I am devastated by someone else reaping MY harvest.
If I simply plant because Daddy gave me His seed and told me to scatter it wherever I could/would then I am trusting Him for the increase.
If I would allow Melody to, she would play in the compost pile just like she plays in the mud and the sand box. She simply enjoys it, stink, muck and all. Sowing the seed was just one more thing to enjoy.
In a few months she will eat some pumpkin pie while I try to explain again this is the result of her action. She will enjoy the pie (and all the other pies which may be frozen over the coming months), but when next spring rolls around she won’t plant the seed because of pumpkins, she will plant the seed because she enjoys being with Daddy in the yard, in the compost pile, or in the pumpkin patch.
So if there is one thing from that childlike attitude that I need (or maybe we need) it is simply to enjoy…take comfort in the fact that the One who gave us the seed also oversees the seed and placed us where we are to scatter it for His purposes.
Until then, do you want me to save you a piece of pie or would you like a whole one for Deb and the kids?
By: darrellbjr on August 15, 2008
at 4:23 pm