I was traveling in a third world country recently and visited an orchard of orange trees. It had been planted in terrace fashion on the side of a hill, and I could tell the farmer and his workers had put a lot of time into building the terrace walls of stone, creating irrigation ditches, tending the small trees and so on. He was very proud of his little orchard. It was his livelihood and he worked hard. All manual labor. No mechanized help whatsoever.
I asked him how he got his oranges to market.
He said that he did not harvest the oranges himself. Rather the “businessman” came to him and the two of them negotiated a price, and then the “businessman” picked the fruit and hauled it off to market—via donkey cart or ox cart.
Of course I thought of the Scriptures—the apostle Paul’s reminder regarding the growth of the church: Some plant, some water, some reap the harvest, but all is done to the glory of God.
This is a good reminder in a day when we’re often so concerned about numbers and size and success.
It’s more important to take care of the ministry at hand, and the rest will be fall in to place. So if we’re planting seeds, let’s plant seeds. If we’re watering, let’s water. If we’re reaping, let’s reap.
I love your comments and I plan on pondering your thoughts and going in this direction for next halloween. It would be fun to invite people to come in their "compassion costumes" "ministry costumes"
I like the scripture that suggests we "put on Christ" . This would be a great way to address this.
Posted by: Joyce DeToni-HIll | November 10, 2009 at 05:05 PM