Reaping

Summer is bursting with new life! Our garden is growing immensely and so are our children! I can’t pick the beans fast enough and I can’t keep my kids is shoes that fit! Gardening has become such a topic of discussion on a nightly basis and the education and biblical references are endless. I can’t believe the way the Lord relates so much of life and relationships to gardening. The vast varieties of vegetables are likened to the types of people on the earth and within each variety they all need the sun and they all need water. However, they all are attacked and feasted on by different bugs(or sin) and they all require different spacing and weeding (repenting) affects them differently as well. Then there’s the harvesting(fruits of obedience)…some are ready after only a couple weeks and many others take most the summer to come into their full glory. Soon, the feasting at the banqueting table will commence. Perhaps you think I’m reaching here to compare our bounty to the heavenly bounty. I’m not convinced otherwise as of yet. The Lord has so many parables in the Gospels relating to planting and harvesting and reaping what we have sown. As a refresher: The sower went forth to sow, and as he sowed, some fell upon the hard way, and the birds came and devoured them and others fell upon stony places where they had not much earth, and straightway they sprung up, because they had no deepness of earth; and when the sun was risen, they were scorched, and because they had no root, they withered away; and others fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked them; but others fell upon the good ground and yielded fruit, some a hundred-fold, some sixty-fold, some thirty-fold: he that hath an ear to hear, let him hear (Matthew 13:3-9; Mark 4:3-9; Luke8:5-8).

Or what about this one: I am the true vine and My Father is the husbandman every branch in Me that beareth not fruit He taketh away and every branch that beareth fruit, He will prune it, that it may bear more fruit; abide in Me, and I in you as the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine, so neither can ye, except ye abide in Me I am the vine, ye are the branches; he that abideth in Me, and I in him, the same beareth much fruit; for without Me ye can do nothing; this is My commandment, that ye love one another, even as I have loved you (John 15:1-5, 12)
As we seek His guidance and will, He lights our paths with verses like these as well: Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap. For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life. Gal. 6:7-8
Unfortunately, most of my brood of 7 won’t eat vegetables. *gasp*! I know, I know, and I’m working on them; hence our first garden. I am already seeing a change. The olders are setting a better example just with their willingness to try new veggies, where that wasn’t even optional before. They are reaping what they’ve sown, and so are we. What are you reaping? Blessings.