This was intended to post over a month ago. Sorry, brother:
In the whirlwind of phone calls, spreadsheets, and office birthday parties I found myself on a tiny retreat at work this week. A miniature reflection was being led by my friend and spiritual brother. His words have resounded in my heart and in just a few day's time have already born great meditation.
this image is from www.accessgambia.com
What do we do when our Lord has placed us in a field with a particular crop and it is bearing no fruit? Did we read the map wrong - up-side-down perhaps? This might not be the plot? Perhaps we grabbed the wrong satchel of seeds. These seeds seem too tiny, too dry, too green, even fragile and easily bruised- sure signs they couldn't possibly bear the vital and hearty crop we've been promised. Now what? Abandon ship, so to speak? Venture to the next lot and help someone else with his seedlings?
With all that in mind I came across this scripture from John chapter 4 (verses 30-37):
- They went out of the town and came to him.
- Meanwhile, the disciples urged him, "Rabbi, eat."
- But he said to them, "I have food to eat of which you do not know."
- So the disciples said to one another, "Could someone have brought him something to eat?"
- Jesus said to them, "My food is to do the will of the one who sent me and to finish his work. Do you not say, 'In four months the harvest will be here'? I tell you, look up and see the fields ripe for the harvest.
- The reaper is already receiving his payment and gathering crops for eternal life, so that the sower and reaper can rejoice together. For here the saying is verified that 'One sows and another reaps.'
- It is important to look at the context in which Jesus is telling His friends, "one sows and another reaps"...He is revealing His great communion with God, His Father and the very source of his sustenance. With God Christ needs nothing else- not even a bite to eat. And it is within that framework that Christ tells his disciples "The reaper is already receiving his payment and gathering crops for eternal life so that the sower and reaper can rejoice together." The sower matters not without the reaper.
