A Year of Plenty
As I sit here and write these words, I am blessed to be looking out the sunroom window, watching our very fat sheep graze on our field of abundance. Less than a year ago, I was looking out these same windows at only six sheep. Now there are a dozen roaming around out there, many of which are expectant mothers, God’s way of multiplying.
On any given day in which we can get out of bed, enjoy our health, have a safe and pleasant environment to call home, we should be thankful. Many in the world cannot say that. In fact, many of those who were alive and well only a year ago are no longer with us, passing from this life into the next. They will be sorely missed!
As we sojourn through this life, being grateful to God is imperative to our mental, physical and spiritual well-being. This week we celebrate Thanksgiving, a time that most look forward to, an opportunity for feasting in excess and lazing around with family. Many will enjoy a holiday off from work or attending school, taking a break from their normal busyness. We should be careful not to create more unnecessary busyness and enjoy this time.
I am grateful for family and friends. We have food and shelter beyond measure. God is good and faithful to provide. I am thankful for the good times as well as the bad. God has grown us this year in many ways, some unexpected and other ways that has yet to produce fruit. But the harvest is coming. I can see it.
I remember gardening as a young boy on our farm growing up. My Dad and Mom had amazing ambitions that became reality, working the soil, row upon row of vegetables beyond measure. I can remember taking a sack full of corn seeds and walking down those carefully planned straight furrows dug with a hoe. One after another, I would drop those corn seeds into the ground. They were hard and seemingly lifeless. But once they were dropped into that fertile soil, covered and watered, God did His amazing handiwork, a transformation from dried, crinkled seeds into flourishing corn stalks. Wheelbarrow loads of corn would soon come, more than you could imagine. We spent those summers harvesting not only corn, but peas, okra, beans, peanuts, potatoes and much more. We reap what we sow, and when we planted a lot, we harvested a lot.
Original painting of the Steen family homestead where my dad was born.
Complements of: Thereisa Housley
Resident Historical Folk Artist at The Buffalo River Art Gallery located in Gilbert, AR
We have been tilling the soil of life this year, making furrows, long rows that cry out for seeds. This garden is a bit different, though. In fact, we chose to put a majority of our vegetable gardening on hold this year, opting to focus our attention elsewhere. We have been sowing seeds into the lives of people, into my writing business and other ways of ministering to others. We are putting those seeds into the fertile soil, believing in God for the harvest.
It is coming. The harvest is on the horizon. Even on this cold, fall day, right before we celebrate Thanksgiving, the seeds are germinating in the hearts of people. We have sown tears and time, prayers and petitions to God. We have invested of our resources and all God has given us as His stewards. He is working.
The Lord of the harvest is faithful to do His part, but we must do our part. We must sow.
“But this I say: he who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and he who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully.”
2 Corinthians 9:6
May each of us continue to sow bountifully into the hearts of people. Happy Thanksgiving!