Strawberries

I can remember spending time out on my Grandpa's farm as a kid. Whether it was time to plow, time to plant, time to weed or time to harvest there was always something to be done. Grandpa always had a way of making sure that everyone had a job to do. And every job big and small was important. (at least in his eyes)

Thinking of those days on the farm I can see God's hand teaching so many lessons. I can remember as a young boy around 4 or 5 years old planting rows of strawberries in a freshly plowed field. I got to take a hand shovel and dig a small hole. One of my sisters would put the seeds in the hole and my other sister would cover the seeds. We would the water the row of planted seeds.

I remember standing there looking at the row. A stick at both ends marked Strawberries. I waited. I wanted to see that first plant burst through the ground but it didn't happen that day. I have to admit I was a little disappointed.

A few weeks later, we were about to pull into the farm we I looked out the window and saw little bits of green all around the strawberry rows. I was excited. It was time for strawberries.

When we got out into the field Grandpa showed me that there wasn't just strawberries but that there were weeds sprouting out too. He explained that the weeds will grow up and croak out the strawberries unless someone who cares about the strawberries will carefully pick the weeds so that the strawberries can grow big a juicy. So it was back to work.

After the weeding was done I stood and looked at the neat little row going down the field. I could almost taste those strawberries now. But at last we had to go home and still no strawberries to eat.

In time those plants grew bigger and stronger until one day we pulled into the farm and Grandpa walked up to the car and as we piled out he handed each of us a basket. A we walked out to the field Grandpa told me it was time to pick some strawberries. He showed me the difference between a fully ripe strawberry and an immature strawberry and with a smile he whispered to me, "try not to eat more than you put in the basket."

This memory makes me think about how God acts in my life. He desires my life to produce plump, ripe fruit, strawberries if you will. But before these strawberries are ready there is a lot of work to be done. The field of our lives will have to be plowed, rocks and sticks and trash will need removed. Some holes may have to be dug and filled with the seed of God's word. We will have to sit in the heat of the sun and be drenched by the rains and battered by the wind. The weeds of our sin must be rooted out and removed.

And there sets God at the end of the row that is your life, waiting to taste the freshest, plumpest, reddest, sweetest strawberries ever seen.

1 Corinthians 3:6-9 says, "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. For we are God's fellow workers; you are God's field, God's building."

What kind of field will you be?