Sowing Seeds
Psalm 126:5-6 (NIV)
5 Those who sow in tears will reap with songs of joy. 6 He who goes out weeping, carrying seed to sow, will return with songs of joy, carrying sheaves with him.
Good morning!
Do you like to plant flowers and vegetables in the spring? When I was a young girl, our family spent hours outside turning the soil and planting seeds. After the soil was turned, watered and fertilized, we would shake seed packets over the garden bed and cover the tiny seedlings up with a layer of fresh dirt. Every plant was important, as we spent time preparing, planting, and watching our garden grow.
My mother loved to sing while working in the garden. One of her all-time favorite gardening songs is “Bringing in the Sheaves.” We would march around the garden bed together, swinging our arms and singing our garden song with such a passion! I thought the words and melody helped those little seeds spring up into the sheaves we would one day harvest for our dinner table. I had no idea that these words meant so much more.
The regeneration of life is an amazing thing. We witness the cold, hard ground become green again as grass begins to grow. Stately trees bud out, covered in an array of newly-formed leaves and flowers. The smell of new life blankets the air. Rains come to water new growth, and the sun appears, beckoning growth. Does it not take your breath away every time we experience spring time?
We cannot begin to comprehend how God restores life to the dead. How does He take something so dry and brittle, and make it spring forth again? Our God can take the hardest heart and soften it with His forgiveness, love, and power. He can take something that was dead and bring it back to life! Even the coldest, hardest soil cannot keep us from the love of God, for He is the master gardener.
We share God’s love with our neighbors, as we plant seeds of faith, water the soil with love, and prepare for His ultimate harvest. Every person is precious and valued to our Lord. We sow our faith seeds with tears and in joy, knowing that Christ will return to earth someday to harvest His sheaves, and take them home to the Master Gardener’s banquet table.
The Lord is watching and waiting and counting on you and me to sow seeds of kindness, every morning, every evening, as we wait for His glorious harvest. Knowles Shaw wrote the words to Bringing in the Sheaves in 1874. May you sing these words with gusto as you share what Jesus Christ has done to create new life in you!
Sowing in the morning, sowing seeds of kindness, sowing in the noontide and the dewy eve;
Waiting for the harvest, and the time of reaping, we shall come rejoicing, bringing in the sheaves.
Sowing in the sunshine, sowing in the shadows, fearing neither clouds nor winter’s chilling breeze;
By and by the harvest, and the labor ended, we shall come rejoicing, bringing in the sheaves.
Going forth with weeping, sowing for the Master, though the loss sustained our spirit often grieves;
When our weeping is over, He will bid us welcome, we shall come rejoicing, bringing in the sheaves.
Bringing in the sheaves, bringing in the sheaves, we shall come rejoicing, bringing in the sheaves.
Bringing in the sheaves, bringing in the sheaves, we shall come rejoicing, bringing in the sheaves.
Grace and peace,
Deb Spaulding
Pray for: God to use your life, as you plant the seeds of faith for others today.
