There's Scripture in the Soil!

This summer, God has granted me the opportunity to work at a farm in Elora, north of Guelph. I am incredibly thankful for his provision in this especially during the global pandemic we are all experiencing. I am glad that I have the opportunity to work at an essential service and serve my local community in doing so. More than that, the idea of working on a farm has come up here and there over the past few years, and I've only heard wonderful things. What has struck me the most since I started a couple of weeks ago is the number of biblical analogies and insights that sprout up as I work. The Word of God is filled with examples and metaphors related to agriculture and farming and I thought I'd share some of the neat ah-ha moments I've had so far. 

God gives the growth. 

I remember my first day out in the field planting onions. Each plant was grown in the greenhouse before it was transferred outside. It was baffling to consider all the work, time and effort that went into each individual onion plants I was planting into the ground. One by one, on your knees, filling what seemed like a never-ending row of holes. And that's not even the end of the journey; how long before it can be harvested and then get to one's kitchen? I anticipate and look forward to the day we can harvest these - I almost just want to frame it forever, the work of my hands, the fruit of my labor.

1 CORINTHIANS 3:6-8 - "I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God made it grow. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow. The man who plants and the man who waters have one purpose, and each will be rewarded according to his own labor." 

However, 1 Corinthians 3:6-8 reminds me that while we work the ground, water the plants, and provide all the nutrients it may need, it is God alone who allows them to grow. I stood up with achy legs at the end of that day, overlooking the work we had accomplished and thought "if these all die from frost tonight, I will be utterly devastated." Yet, there was nothing we could do, we couldn't stay outside and baby the plants, even if we tried to shelter and give all the protection we humanly could, God is the one that gives the growth. The faith and trust that farmers must have that God will grow their plants for harvesting!

I consider the times when these plants and their growth was all that families depended on, for income, for food and sustenance; and then to consider when God commands a year of Sabbath every seven years, to not work, sow or prune one's fields (Leviticus 25:2-7)?! But we who hope in the Lord know that He faithfully provides for his children, even if it means we must wait and sit uncomfortably in the uncertainty, but then also watching his hand provide exactly what we need every time (even if it isn't exactly what we were hoping for either).

Deadheading the beautiful.

The greenhouse is a house of life. As you walk in, you get hugged by the warmth and you set your eyes on endless spreads of saplings and baby plants, and little flower heads like strokes of paint, each reaching out to be cared for each and every day. Yet the task I was assigned was to go around and nick the flowers of the plant off. The beautiful blooming flower, the goal of what we are all working towards to delight in and to enjoy, to be plucked, removed and discarded? This practice is known as deadheading, or pruning, and the idea is that by removing the early buds or flowers, the plant can channel its energy into something greater to come, a greater bloom.

"I am the true vine and my Father is the gardener" Jesus says in John 15, "He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful". Faithfulness and fruitfulness is the goal. Deadheading revealed to me that God will even remove what is good and beautiful (or perhaps what you may think is good and beautiful), so that something greater will follow. Whether they are sinful things, or good things that have become idols that need to be pruned, He continues to work and cultivate that we may be beautiful, purposeful and meaningful.

This is something that as a plant or as a branch abiding in the vine, we cannot see or understand in the moment. Why would God take away? Yet the gardener has a plan for each of his plants, the Father a will for each of his children, He sees what we can and will become, and he works endlessly for our good and His glory.

ROMANS 8:28 - "And we know that in all things, God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose."  

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On a separate note, some of the best parts of my days include;

- finding communal snacks in the lunchroom

- periodically wiping my glasses to restore full vision

- eating my end of the day orange

Some not-the-best parts include;

- trying to get dirt out of my nose at the end of the day

- wild temperature fluctuations when working in the greenhouse

- aching in places I didn't know could ache