“Now he who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will also supply and increase your store of seed and will enlarge the harvest of your righteousness. You will be made rich in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion, and through us your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God… Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift!” 2 Corinthians 9:11-12, 17
Dear heavenly Father, once again you’ve given us an amazingly beautiful spring. I absolutely love this time of year. The mornings kiss the beginning and ending of each day with refreshing cool, and the browns and grey’s of winter step aside for the kaleidoscopic colors and aromatic wonder of a brand new season. As tiny buds segue into full leaf and bloom, I’m reminded of your covenant faithfulness and promise. The cycle of seedtime and harvest will continue until the completed harvest of your pan-national family and the emergence of the ultimate Garden City—The New Jerusalem. Oh hasten the Day of the sneeze-less, allergy-less new heaven and new earth!
And, Father, thanks for including us in this whole redeeming and greening process. You’ve not only promised to turn the barrenness and fallowness of our lives into a “well-watered garden” (Jeremiah 3:12; Isaiah 59:11), you’ve also promised to use us as a means of making all things new, beautiful, lush and fruitful.
But even as this horticultural story sounds so great, so green… Father, how can we know for sure? How can we be certain that laboring in such a weed infested, pest infiltrated, drought-threatened world is not in vain? So quickly you send us to the gospel, as always. You’ve given, planted and raised the quintessential seed of your Son, the Lord Jesus—all the guarantee we need and the actual firstfruits of a harvest already begun. Your generosity is both astounding and so comforting… We join Paul in shouting, “Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift!”
And you’ve also promised us all the seed we need, and you’ve promised that sown wheat will actually become baked bread. And fresh bread will give us all the strength we need to plant the never-to-be-depleted supply of additional gospel-seed, which you also promise. There is no possibility of failed crops. Some of us will plant, some of us will water, but you alone cause things to grow (1 Corinthians 3:6)… and you are causing things to grow and you will continue to do so. Once again we shout, “Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift!”
Oh Father, make us and our church families gardens of grace and righteousness… for your glory and the benefit of our communities, so very Amen we pray, in Jesus’ fruitful and faithful name.
