A prisoner receives a letter: "Dear Husband, I have decided to plant some lettuce in the back garden. When is the best time to plant?"
The prisoner, knowing the guards read all mail, replies in a letter:
"Whatever you do, do not touch the back garden. That is where I hid all the money."
A week later he received another letter: "Dear Husband, You wouldn't believe what happened; some men came with shovels and dug up the entire garden."
The prisoner wrote another letter: "Dear wife, now is the best time to plant the lettuce."
We have all been fascinated by the mystery of seeds turning into plants and the ensuing life. "God gives the growth," our Sunday school teachers told us. Farmers still are fascinated as a barren field turns into tiny sprigs of green and then stems that wave in the wind.
Recently I took inventory of my spiritual writing. Over a dozen years I have penned more than 700 articles, not counting the books, and I have sent them to literally thousands of individual weeklies.
I have heard responses from different cities and countries, often surprised by how the WORD spreads and is received. In humility I realize that it is God who gives the growth.
Our job is to plant, to cultivate, to water and to patiently await the Lord of the harvest who fulfills His promises in due time.
"Conversion doesn't depend on our ability to tell a good story, or give a good witness. It depends on the mystery of God's revelation in the secret place of each person's heart
"[so] Keep looking for opportunities to share God's work in your life! Keep giving of yourself, letting your life tell the story of Jesus. Then trust God to take those seeds and make them grow, bearing fruit for his kingdom!" (from The Word Among Us, January 2012, p.47).
We worry about family members and loved ones who have left the church and maybe even the family fold. Plant that seed of faith with love, water it with hope-filled tears, and keep the lines of communication open. In time God will answer our prayers and provide the growth.
"Just as from the heavens the rain and the snow come down and do not return there until they have watered the earth, making it fertile and fruitful, giving seed to the one who sows and bread to the one who eats, so shall my word be that goes forth from my mouth; my word shall not return to me void, but shall do my will, achieving the end for which I sent it" (Isaiah: 55:10-11).
In the last part of Isaiah's prophecy God promises "Bread for the one who eats." Remember Jesus is the Sower of the seed. Jesus is the bread of life, providing food unto eternal life.
"Blessed are the ears that hear and the eyes that see, for the Lord God has prepared them from the foundation of the world to provide for the harvest" (Father Robert Pecotte).
