I'm a mini-farmer.

I lived some of my life on a farm.  The trees, grass, garden and fields have always felt like home to me.  My grandparents farmed.  Many of my uncles and aunts made their living on the land of Saskatchewan.  Dirt must be in my veins!

About grade five or six, I remember being assigned a project on agriculture.  In scrapbook format, my assignment involved finding and cutting out pictures of farm implements and various crops from magazines.  Somehow terms like straight-cutting versus swathing/combining have stuck in my head.  Crop rotation and summer fallow were also methods used back in the 1970's on the prairies.  Learning these things in school added to my personal knowledge gleaned from listening in on adults conversing about rainfall, fertilizer and stubble!  Farming is not just a job; it is a way of life.

Jesus used agricultural references in many of His parables and teachings.  The sower and the seed, the wheat and the tares, the sheep and wolves.  He taught on fishing, collecting taxes and lost coins, too.  Jesus knew how to bring spiritual truths into everyday life by using everyday examples to illustrate.  

Although as a grown-up I have never lived or worked on a farm, I love to grow things.  In my young wife and mother days, I tried to garden.  The soil in my garden plots was mostly clay and not very productive. We hauled in sand, added manure and peat moss. A few years we enjoyed some fresh vegetables.  The weeds and gophers enjoyed the fruits of my labours in other years!

Now lately, I seem to have developed a green thumb with flower beds and indoor plants.  It is amazing how some regular watering and occasional fertilizer treatments will aid in the growth and blooming of many annuals and perennials.  Spider plants and succulents have thrived in my home.  Surprisingly, I have successfully kept an African Violet and some coleus plants alive, as well. I have even passed on slips from these plants to family and friends!  There is a sense of pride and pleasure to plant, water and nurture life.

This morning in my quiet time with the Lord, I read Hosea 10:12 and it stirred something in me.  "Sow for yourselves righteousness; Reap in mercy; Break up your fallow ground, For it is time to seek the LORD, Till He comes and rains righteousness on you."

Is it the mini-farmer in me that causes this Scripture verse to resonate with my heart?  For whatever reason, I recalled the assignment from elementary school on summer fallow and wondered:  What is the significance of breaking up the fallow ground?  Letting a field lie fallow was a good thing; it gave the soil a chance to replenish nutrients and rest.  But a farmer must work up that soil and plant it or it would be useless.  There is a time to till the earth, sow the seed and grow the crops needed to supply the farmer and his family.

The prophet Hosea was speaking to his people, the Jews living in Israel.  They had experienced some seasons of wealth and prosperity, but had forsaken their worship of God, Yahweh, the Lord.  Their spiritual lives were drying up and lying fallow.  They were not bearing the fruit or crops of righteousness.  Twice, Hosea mentions that term, righteousness.  According to GotQuestions.org,     "Dictionaries define righteousness as “behavior that is morally justifiable or right.” Such behavior is characterized by accepted standards of morality, justice, virtue, or uprightness. The Bible’s standard of human righteousness is God’s own perfection in every attribute, every attitude, every behavior, and every word. Thus, God’s laws, as given in the Bible, both describe His own character and constitute the plumb line by which He measures human righteousness."

So Hosea exhorts his fellow Jews to sow, to break up the fallow ground and seek the Lord.  He seems to mix together the spiritual terms and the agricultural terms.  Sow?  Seeds of righteousness and the result would be to reap mercy.  The Israelites were not paying attention to loving God, to loving their neighbours nor to being examples in their relationship to others outside the Jewish faith. They were not living according to God's standards and His ways as taught in the Law, or the commandments of the Bible.  And just as in earthly farming, the soil of their hearts had been left fallow, not being worked or having stones and debris removed.  They had allowed sin, selfishness and spiritual laziness to keep them from growing in their relationship with the Lord their God.

Hosea promised that if they would sow righteousness and break the ground, they would be prepared to receive the blessings (rain) from the Lord Himself!  Today if you were to sit down and have coffee with a bunch of farmers, the talk would be about the weather and specifically about the moisture or lack of it.  Physically and spiritually, we need the rain.  Water is symbolic of eternal life, of the presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives.  Oh, how we need God's rain from heaven!

But God will not rain on our hearts unless we seek Him.  What does that entail?  Seeking God involves repentance, turning away from sinful thoughts, words and actions.  Seeking God means praying, asking Him for what we need.  Seeking God is saying Yes to living His way, not our own way.  In another Bible verse, the prophet Jeremiah wrote to the Israelites, " And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart."  Seeking God is an "all in" kind of effort, searching for Him diligently, daily, directly.  And He promises to be found by those who sincerely pursue Him.

I am stirred to seek the Lord, to break up the hardened and rocky ground in my soul, and wait for Him to pour out the spiritual rain I so need.

What about you?