Springtime & Harvest: It's All About the Seed!
by Joan Vetter
Jesus shared a parable about how the seed – the Word of God – yielded various results depending on where it fell. At our church’s annual mission’s conference Mark Ost, missionary to France, shared some startling statistics of his initial struggle getting a church started in Paris. He stated, “After 3 years I had 10 people, and one day 9 of them said they were leaving and not to contact them. He learned how difficult it is to reach the French people with the gospel due mainly to their intellectualism and their sparse spiritual heritage. However Mark never stopped sowing the seed, and today his church has over 200 people.
Several years ago we moved to Valley City, Ohio and purchased a 50 year old farm house on 2 acres of land. So we set out to become farmers, and planted a garden. The first year we were big on enthusiasm but short on knowledge. Our crop was meager. The next year a neighbor arrived with his huge tractor to plow our garden plot. We added fertilizer to the soil and covered the soil with burlap bags to keep the weeds out. Like Mark, I’m glad we didn’t give up. Our reward was dozens of ears of fresh picked corn, and more tomatoes than we could eat or even can. I still laugh at the picture of myself right before our corn was ready for harvest. We had a tremendous storm with high winds and pelting rain. After it subsided, the corn stalks were all bent to the ground. I kneeled in the mud to straighten them and piled up mud around the roots. Task accomplished, I was covered with mud but delighted that I had saved our harvest.
Our neighbor across the street also raised corn, but the raccoons would instinctively know when it was ready to eat and they would raid his garden. He told me that he even sat in his corn patch with a gun to shoot them when the corn was almost ripe. Knowing I didn’t own a gun, I drew upon the only ammunition I had - prayer! I asked the Lord to protect our corn from the predators. One morning around 5 a.m. we heard a loud ruckus in the corn patch. When we looked there was a dead, huge raccoon! Did he tangle with a dog or an angel? Who knows?
I believe the Lord uses many everyday examples to teach us His principles about the Kingdom of God. I learned much about His ways during my gardening experience. In the Song of Solomon 4:12 God’s beloved is referred to as a “garden enclosed”. God seed planted in our lives when we are born again is the Word of God, which in 1 Peter 1:23 is identified as “incorruptible seed”. Once, in a prayer group gathering someone used the term “supersede”, and we all grabbed on to the words “super seed” and began to laugh. The Bible says He sent His Word and healed them and delivered them from their destructions, so we pictured that Word being sent with supernatural superiority that day.
God’s Word tells us the promises of God are yes and amen, so we first look for the promise in seed form. Then we plant it in our hearts and water it and expect it to grow. I admit it is difficult when we are in chronic pain, but I believe our own breakthrough lies in discovering the strength to reach out and be concerned about someone else. Like Abraham Lincoln said, “To ease another’s heartache is to forget one’s own.”
