|
Forgive me! I just can’t help myself I know that every spring I return
to the same old theme. But what can we do, it’s always right there in
front of our faces. And even this year, as the season comes a bit too
slowly, I return to the theme once again.
Marsha and I
have been making plans for the making of new garden patches this
spring. (As far as I’m concerned, you can’t dig up enough lawn to plant
things. I’d rather spend a half hour pulling weeds in a garden than a
half hour mowing grass.) And, as we planned, I remembered how often the
image of sowing and reaping is used in Scripture. Jesus tells the
parable of a farmer who goes out to sow his field. (Matthew 13.7) The
apostle Paul reminds the Galatians: “Do not be deceived; God is not
mocked, for you reap whatever you sow.” (Galatians 6.7) The book of
Proverbs teaches: “The wicked earn no real gain, but those who sow
righteousness get a true reward.” (Proverbs 11.18) And then there is my
favorite (though it’s not Scripture) from St. Francis of Assisi:
Lord, make me an instrument of your peace;
where there is hatred, let me sow love;
when there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
and where there is sadness, joy.
Grant that I may not so much seek
to be consoled as to console;
to be understood, as to understand,
to be loved as to love;
for it is in giving that we receive,
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
and it is in dying to ourselves that we are born to eternal life.
As I prepare
the garden for the season I’m aware that some of those vegetables I’ll
plant won’t come up or do too well. It’s part of the risk (and the fun)
of gardening. One year will be a great year for peppers and a lousy one
for tomatoes; the next year it will the reverse. I have no idea what
this year will bring. Some of what I plant will yield far beyond
anything I can use and I’ll get to share. Some won’t flourish and I’ll
have to puzzle over why. Some will do well with the weather we’ll have
this year, some will wilt (or drown, depending). It’s that way with
the seeds we sow in life. Some of the things we do for others will
yield up so much that what we have done will bless others. Sometimes
what we do will wilt – no reason why, it just happens that way.
Whatever we sow in life, though, we sow to God. We sow it to God’s
glory knowing that some of it will do well and bless God’s people and
God’s creation.
As we come into
this season of sowing may we sow what is good and true and loving.
Shalom,
Dave
|
