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Those who plant in tears will harvest with shouts of joy. Psalms 126:5
Growing up, my parents would always have a large garden to help feed our large family on a limited budget. I never enjoyed planting the garden for several reasons.
First of all, it was tedious. Spending hours in the hot sun putting seeds in the ground, making sure they were spaced according to my mother’s expectations and then covering them with the correct amount of earth wasn’t my idea of a great way to spend a spring day after a long, cold winter!
Secondly, we never really knew how well the garden would do. Summers in Wisconsin are anything but predicable. Sometimes they were hot and dry. Other times they were hot and wet. I didn’t always see the point!
Thirdly, I realized that planting seeds wasn’t the end of the story. Planting seeds also meant that in coming weeks there would be weeding to be done, cultivating to be accomplished and sometimes, irrigation to be implemented.
Lastly, I wasn’t looking forward to the process of canning and freezing these vegetables, which at our house was a family affair and usually took many hours away from some serious play time. Summers were short, time was valuable!
My problem was that. I wasn’t able to see the end result of all my seed planting. I wasn’t able to look ahead to my enjoyment of going out into the garden and picking a pod from the peas, those sweet morsels of enjoyment!
I couldn’t see my love for picking cherry tomatoes and snacking on them through the day.
I couldn’t see the joy of having fresh sweet corn and other vegetables, or the tastiness of BLT sandwiches made with tomatoes from our garden on mom’s homemade bread. I lost focus on the harvest.
Is that how it is with you? To often we focus on the current situation and the struggle ahead without realizing the joy of the harvest.
Marriage can be hard, yet those who have stuck it out in the hard times will tell you that those hard times ended up being the very thing that cemented the relationship.
Those who’ve gone through business or financial failure will tell you how much they appreciated the lessons learned and the resulting joy they live in now.
The drought of relationships gone bad can seem hopeless, yet those times of drought often are God’s call to draw closer to him, not people. To sense his love and faithfulness.
The analogy breaks down though. Sometimes the seeds we plant result in a harvest we never see. Kindnesses to strangers. Patience with those who let us down time and again. The pain of watching out kids make choices that go against the things we taught them.
But keep on planting seeds! Even though you may not see a harvest in your lifetime, the Father who brings the increase, will reward you in the life ahead because of your faithful seed planting in Jesus’ name.
Don’t be misled—you cannot mock the justice of God. You will always harvest what you plant. Galatians 6:7 (NLT)
Have you ever had the chance to visit a greenhouse in the early spring? While most of us are just beginning to think about getting out to do the yard work, greenhouses and nurseries are busy preparing and planting the flowers and plants you will use to beautify your yards and gardens.
They are making sure the soil mixture is just right, adjusting the heat and moisture levels, and making sure that enough light is available for optimum growing of the plants. Not only that, but they make sure that the plants they are preparing will grow well in your area. It’s not important if they grow well in the regulated environment of the greenhouse. Each gardener must ask the question, “How will this plant do in the real world?”
One more thing the gardener makes sure of before they offer their plants to you. They make sure there are no weeds among the plants. Weeds are tricky little things because sometimes they look just like the real plant. An untrained eye can easily pull up a flower thinking it’s a weed or leave a weed intact thinking it’s a flower!
A trained gardener is never surprised by what comes up in the pot they’ve planted. The seed they place in the soil produces the exact plant they intended it to be. No turnips from marigold seeds. No rose bushes from pumpkin seeds. No oak trees from pine cones.
Life is the same way. In a sense we are gardeners and the world around us is the greenhouse. We plant seeds by the words we speak. We nourish plants by the actions we take and the attitudes we carry. When we plant understanding and acceptance, we gain understanding and acceptance in our own lives. When we plant love and mercy in the lives of others we receive love and mercy in return. When we cultivate our relationships with grace and forgiveness, we harvest grace and forgiveness in return.
What seeds are you planting in the lives of those around you? The Bible tells us that the things we instill in others by our actions and words are the exact things we will harvest. It’s true that sometimes we won’t see the results as soon as we’d like, but sometimes we need to prepare the soil by getting rid of the weeds and rocks and nourish it before the seed will actually take root.
Remember, we are responsible for preparing the soil and planting and nourishing the seed. It’s God who is ultimately responsible for the actual growth of the plant. The seeds you place in the lives of those around you will produce exactly what you plant, nothing more. Nothing less.
PRAYER: Father God, master gardener. I realize that you have made me exactly as you want me to be. I praise you for the wonder of my being and the privilege I have to be yours. I pray that I might be able to plant seeds in the lives of others that will bring forth the kind of harvest that is pleasing to you. Help me to sow seeds of love, grace, mercy and forgiveness in the lives of those around me today. In Jesus name, Amen.
Mike Fisk & Built with Grace 