Vincent van Gogh, Arles: November, 1888
In the morning sow your seed, and in the evening do not withhold your hand; for you do not know what shall be blessed, either this or that, or whether they both shall be fruitful in the same way.
Ecclesiastes 11:6
Over the last couple of months we have watched farmers out in the fields at all times of day and night getting the seed into the ground. They buy tons of seed and use highly sophisticated machinery to ensure that the majority gets into the ground. But they have no idea which seeds will grow and which won't. We look at the fields a few weeks later and green shoots are appearing, but there are great patches of bare soil where nothing has grown. And in some places the little plants appear and then a couple of weeks on they all wither and die. Even today the story of the sower makes sense, for as it says in Ecclesiastes we don't know which seed will take and which will not.
But often we make our own judgement as to what will be fruitful and blessed. We decide for ourselves what we should do and what we should not do. And yet in this text we are told to sow all the time, morning and evening, wherever we are and whatever we are doing – sow.
For we cannot judge what will be fruitful and what will not. We cannot know when something will be blessed by God and when it will not. We are told to sow anyway!
And so, every tomorrow is about sowing seeds. Seeds of hope, seeds of love, seeds of joy. Seeds of Jesus and the Good News that He brings into our lives that we want to share with so many people. So let us share those words of hope that Jesus brings.
Jesus told the story of the sower. He didn't preface it with "if you sow..." He said "the sower went out.." There is a presumption that as a follower of Jesus we will be sowers. Now you may feel that you have little to sow. If that is you today, then go feed on the word of God. Jesus said come to the well, receive living water. If we have little to sow it is because haven't topped up lately and our sowing bag is running on empty. A farmer will top up his machine with seeds before sowing – it would be madness to run round the field with an empty machine. And yet so many of us run round with an empty sowing bag. We haven't topped up lately!
To mix our metaphors, go to the well and drink. The word of God will fill your seed bag full and you will be ready to go out into the field and do as Ecclesiastes says, always sowing, but never knowing whether the seed will take root.
Sow anyway...
Prayer
Lord we ask to be filled with Your Spirit but do little to fill ourselves with Your living water. We ask for revival but won't accept that we are the first to need to be revived. We ask for a harvest but, like the person who asks to win the lottery, we fail to buy the ticket – we won't sow the seed. Lord bring us to Your well of living water, that we might be ready to go into the field and sow knowing that You know every seed and where it falls and whether it will survive and grow and bring forth fruit. We thank You Lord. Amen
Adrian Burr