Day 116 "Maintaining a productive life is hard work, yet the crop is eternal."

Day 116 Matthew 13:24-32 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.” My grandfather on my father's side was a farmer, and while he never owned his own farm, he helped many a farmer improve his harvest. I can remember very vividly visiting my grandparents one summer while they were managing a very large citrus farm and, as it is on a farm, everyone works, even visiting grandchildren. One day our job was to pull suckers from the orange trees and burn them. Now for those of you who don't know what a sucker is (or at least that’s what we called it), let me explain: a sucker is a shoot that grows from the base of the tree at ground level. Suckers, while they perfectly imitate the tree, have a few very significant differences: one, they have thorns on them, and two, they bear no fruit. You see, a sucker left to its own will perfectly mimic the hosting tree, yet it will rob the tree of all of the nutrients it can. It appears the goal is to destroy the tree and take its place, something which I have actually seen happen. By robbing the host tree of valuable nutrients, the host tree will become weakened, thus causing it to become susceptible to disease and the elements; in time, if left unattended, it can die. When I read this passage, I cannot help but think of the time with grandpa and later in life in my horticulture classes. I have concluded that, yes, God was a gardener; after all, He did create this amazing garden called earth. Back to the passage, could it be that Jesus is saying that the importance is to build people up, to equip them, to make them stronger than the suckers in our lives and then, when the harvest comes, we are able to reap from the productive plants and burn the tares or the mimicking nonproducing ones? Sometimes, we tend to expend all of our efforts in attempting to make things perfect by tearing down rather than perfecting by building up. Doesn't the latter seem to be more like what Jesus did? Yes, He pointed out the imperfections but He left them in place, exposed them for what they were, and when He returns, yes, He will burn them, yet, all the while, they will have every opportunity to change. Daily Prayer: Father, I pray that you would expose the areas of my own life that cause me to expend great energy and resources yet produce nothing of value, especially for the Kingdom. In Jesus’ name I pray, Amen. "Maintaining a productive life is hard work, yet the crop is eternal." Pastor Gene Burroughs