I bought a spaghetti squash a few weeks ago.
Upon finally deciding it was time to eat it, I found it was still in pretty good shape inside, but the seeds had been sprouting. In fact there were at least two dozen good little sprouts that were all saying “I want to live!” I didn’t have the heart to tell those survivors, “You know, it’s December. You will probably die.”
So I threw them, entangled as they were, into a foil pan and covered them up with potting soil. Already once, the pan has been upended, when I bumped into the cooler on which it was sitting while chasing the dog out of the kitchen. So I threw the plants back into the pan, rearranged the potting soil, and told the young fools it was winter. Today, it’s snowing outside, a phenomenon that often does occur when it’s winter.
God is a gardener.
Or maybe you could say He’s a vineyard keeper, or a farmer, or a fruit grower, but He really likes plants of different kinds. An exception might be pew potatoes, but I’ll come back to that.
And this passage came to mind today, from Matthew 13:24-30:
Another parable He put forth to them, saying: "The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field; but while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat and went his way.
But when the grain had sprouted and produced a crop, then the tares also appeared. So the servants of the owner came and said to him, 'Sir, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have tares?'
He said to them, 'An enemy has done this.'
The servants said to him, 'Do you want us then to go and gather them up?'
But he said, 'No, lest while you gather up the tares you also uproot the wheat with them. Let both grow together until the harvest, and at the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, "First gather together the tares and bind them in bundles to burn them, but gather the wheat into my barn." ' "
The part about the enemy always puzzled me. I never knew anybody who had suffered a huge weed infestation that had been deliberately planted in their field by an enemy. But the principle is happening now. Organization by organization and institution by institution, those in whom we have trusted for many, many years have been exposed as corrupt, weeds as it were.
I have had an image of the FBI that is embodied by Jimmy Stewart. I have had dear, dear teachers who cared about my education and had no other desire for me than that I should excel. I grew up in Girl Scouting and collected a good number of badges that taught me life skills. Our own children supported the candidacy of Joni Ernst for U.S. Senator in Iowa, and knocked on many a door on her behalf.
Now, you can’t even trust Kellogg’s of Battle Creek to be safe for your children, or Disney, or the FBI, the CIA, the DOJ, the Girl OR Boy Scouts of America, the American Library Association, the public school system … Many of these places used to be kind and good, but when allowed to mature, well, we can now see clearly that we had faith in a weed.
Kellogg’s and Burger King and Legos all make products in rainbow colors or with names like “Pride Burgers.” Home Depot and Duke Energy sponsor pride events. Girl and Boy Scouts have lost their way, because if a Supreme Court justice can’t define “woman,” how can the youth of America define boys and girls? Children’s hospitals are healing children in one room and mutilating them in another room. Disney has a cartoon for children featuring a girl who is supposed to be the antichrist.
Joni Ernst is one of twelve Republicans who caved on the one-man, one-woman principle of marriage that God invented, along with our own Senator Todd Young. Because of their betrayal, the DisRespect for Marriage Act (same sex marriage) has now become the law of the land, and a drag queen such as those who have been reading books to little children in libraries, was on hand to watch Biden sign the legislation. I want to cry.
Need I say more? There are many very ugly weeds in this garden, sown deliberately by the Enemy of our Souls. That’s where they came from. They were disguised as good wheat, but they are a huge nothing-crop. I’m sure you can think of many more.
But what does Jesus say in His parable?
There is a Judgment Day, the day of the great Harvest.
As we remember during the season of Advent, Jesus came the first time 2,000 years ago, and not many people were looking for Him. There will be a second Advent too.
There is no doubt about it. And when the Enemy’s weeds are showing their true colors so very clearly, that is the sign for us that there is also a Crop, and the Crop is us, and we’re just about to be gathered into the Father’s barns.
As do my little sprouts, so do I also want to live, even in the dead of winter when the sun isn’t shining. I want to live forever, in a new body without spots or wrinkles, that doesn’t get sick with flu or Covid or a sinus infection, and with a Perfect Spouse and a Loving Father. It won’t be long. For now, we just need to pray for the weeds around us, pray for stamina and wisdom, hold down the fort, hold back the evil as well as we can.
But we can just know that the Day is near. And for the believer in Christ, that gives us hope.
Finally, there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give to me on that Day, and not to me only but also to all who have loved His appearing.
~2 Timothy 4:8
If you are a pew potato my friend, someone who believes that just going to church sometimes will get you into Heaven, Jesus loves you too. But you must not listen to the enemy and become a weed. Are you ready for His return, when He comes to gather His crop? There is a critical decision you need to make, to follow Christ.
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Which reminds me: it’s almost Christmas! This Sunday, Dec. 18, as long as enough of us can stay well, the children of our church will be singing again about Jesus, Who is the reason for the Season. We invite you to tune in to our livestream at 10:30.
Our program, something the Lord gave me this fall when we took our trip to New Mexico, is mostly about those Gentile wise men from the East, who decided to follow the Star, leading to The Bright and Morning Star, Jesus, who is:
The King of Kings
God of the Universe
And the Sacrifice for Our Sins.
We hope you will enjoy it!
