From the Smallest of Seeds

 

Retirement is a remarkable adventure. As a former counselor/therapist I met several men in their mid-60s who presented with significant depression. Often, when I'd ask how long the client had been depressed, he would usually respond with, "About six months or so."

"Well," asking the next obvious question, "what happened six months ago?"

"I don't know," he'd say..."well, I did retire from my job of 40 years."

Those of us who find our worth in what we do, usually struggle when we stop doing that which defined us. The social response to self-definition is usually met with a job title..."Oh I'm a butcher, a baker, a candlestick maker." A less defining response later becomes, "I'm retired," and the respondent no longer quite knows just what she/he is. Hence, depression leaps upon the retiree and forces a reexamination of the self at a time usually reserved for winding down. And while we all must answer the "who am I" question, those who find themselves known by their work/works are faced with a dilemma...either redefine the self or unretire.

I found the transition delightful, being one who loves Yeshua and seeks to walk with Him, know Him, and be known by Him. None-the-less, there can be gaps with one whose time is no longer occupied with the daily grind. Personally, there are several things that are meaningful and growth-enhancing in my retirement repertoire, however, I never would have predicted an attempt at the proverbial retiree activity...gardening. Gardening has been as difficult for me as my feeble attempts to learn Hebrew during the last few years and yet...it has also been just as meaningful.

Now, as all you green-thumbers can attest, gardening is fertile ground in which our God teaches us many things.

In my first attempt last year, I thought I could learn gardening in the same way I learned piano...through YouTube. But as all you old-hands/thumbs well know...you learn gardening through failure. Last year, in a modest 10' x 12' patch, I only harvested from three of the 12 vegetables I sowed. In between planting and harvesting, my poor underlings were subject to mildew, cut worms, cabbage caterpillars, underwatering, overwatering, lousy soil and an ole fella who learned much as he ate YouTube crow.

But in retrospect, that first year must have been orchestrated by Adonai. In everything we do, there is opportunity to learn of His character and trust in His providence. This year, of the 15 seed types/plants I sowed, 15 are thriving, many already bearing fruit. This is also Adonai's doing. Of course, the temptation to brag about what is happening in the garden this year is akin to the scene in the old Tom Hanks movie Castaway, as he marvels at his first fire which he produces from rubbing sticks together..."Look at what I have created!" he screams with passion to no one.

Atop this blog post is a picture of a tomato seed, followed by the tomato plants that have miraculously appeared in this year's same 10'x12' plot. To pretend that the furiously on-coming produce is of my doing is to miss the beauty of The Creator's Hand. First, Abba demonstrates His authorship of creation. I look at that tiny seed and am dumbfounded! How are these plants and fruit possible? How could I possibly ignore the unseen hand that causes all things to come forth at His word? Really? From that tiny seed?

Next, HaShem teaches me that He can produce much from little and here in this patch is demonstrable evidence of that truth, ala, the muster seed illustration. There is an act of faith in putting a seed in the ground. The gardener prepares the ground with that which has been discarded as useless (mulch, manure). She/he then nurtures the seed with the life-giving and sustaining substance...water. The Lord causes the sun to evoke growth and call forth that which is hidden within the seed. The gardener fertilizes, weeds, and keeps away that which would consume each plant before fruit is borne. The lesson is clear..."work with Me and what I have provided to produce a crop...a venture we can share together."

And still, with all these steps in this joint effort, I have no true concept of the miracle that takes place...how something dead becomes alive and then produces fruit. There are many parallels between the plant and our life in Messiah. For instance, the world wants to disable our growth in Messiah...our growth in producing fruit. Just like the mildew, the cutworm, the starvation of the seed, and yes, the evil cabbage caterpillar (lol), the world and the adversary want to steal what has been sown. And, if I allow the seed to be planted and then ignore what He has planted, failing to cultivate that which has been entrusted, I can expect the results similar to what my garden looked like last year. Crippled, diseased, eaten away, with sporadic fruit that would not have otherwise produced lest the grace of God.

Haverim, as in our gardens, let us not let anything fall to the ground. I no longer want to allow myself to entertain diseased worldly offerings or starve that which has been planted by the Holy One...or forget the potential fruit-bearing gifts lying dormant, lest they rot away due to neglectful cultivation. Rather, as I am learning this year from our God, let us nurture, be vigilant and pay attention to the way He would choose to produce fruit in our lives...but all the while trusting Him implicitly in that fruit's outcome.

What has Adonai taught you as a gardener?

 But Do You Like Me?

Many of us are YouTube perusers, often to the detriment of “what we ought to be doing…” If you imbibe that medium, your feed quickly indicates your interests: gardening, Messianic music, running and health, Monty Python sketches…oh wait, that’s my YouTube feed! 

Recently, I’ve been watching NDE videos (near death experiences), accounts of people who died and were then resuscitated. While there’s no shortage of viewpoints regarding those experiences, they are fascinating accounts of people encountering the afterlife. One I watched today recounted the well-know story of Howard Storm, an avowed atheist who died and found himself in hell. In the midst of the horrors he suffered, Storm quickly abandoned his arrogance and denial of HaShem, crying out, “Jesus please save me!” (Keep in mind that Storm is still alive, so this should not be considered a second chance after death.)

And then, Jesus did…

Storm describes how Yeshua was holding him, tightly, comforting him, and his first realization was that Yeshua liked him…a lot! In the clip, he choked up as he said, “Matter of fact, I’m His favorite person in the whole universe! I have to add,” he then says chuckling, “you are too!”

While I am very suspicious of NDE accounts, it got me to thinking…does our Creator like us?

There is a kind of perfunctory love of which we are all familiar. Our parents might remind us, for instance, that they loved us during our adolescence and then quickly add, “But I can’t say that I liked you much!”

We can fall into the trap of making that distinction when assuming how God loves/likes us. Recently, the author of the book “Gentile and Lowly,” Dane Ortlund, put it this way…”I think our tendency is to construct a view of God that unwittingly is an earth-to-heaven view rather than a heaven-to-earth view.”

In other words, we project our experience of love onto God, with a less than perfect understanding of His commitment to us as individuals.

We are hardwired to think of ourselves according to the law still…stuck in the “how am I doing Lord” mentality, believing that He evaluates us according to our performance.

Does HaShem merely tolerate us, or is He truly glad to be with us? I suspect most all of us can cognitively acknowledge the latter, all            the while treating His presence as if He is the parent of our adolescent selves. It is understandable after all, to see our heavenly Abba leading with the “disappointment card.”

“Why can’t you be more like your brother!” might be an echo from our youth.

What does it mean to be liked? There have been occasions when my wife will list the ways she likes me, which frankly, carries greater meaning than “I love you.” There’s no guessing about it, her comments are specific. She likes me!

God’s love can become so diminished when we water it down with our concept of parental love, or even “well, He loves everybody.” But His love is so far beyond our imaginings that it’s difficult with the filters we see through, to accept the fact, the truth, that He even likes us!

Those who rehearse this truth are more likely to relate to Yeshua beyond a performance-based, relationally conditional assumption.

I love this Ortlund quote during a recent interview: “Jesus is the single most accessible and approachable person in the universe. You don't have to go through security to get to him. You don't have to work your way up into a hearing before him. He is gentle and lowly in heart, which really is a fulfillment of what the Old Testament says about God himself. In places like Isaiah 57:15 God will say, “I dwell in the high and holy place, and also with him who is of a contrite and lowly spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly.” So already we have these glorious hints and teachings in the Old Testament about God being accessible while holy, which Jesus is the tangible incarnation and concrete reality of.”

Today, as you tend your garden, or go for a walk, or read the word…consider the truth of God’s “like” for you. Tis a necessary ingredient for accepting His friendship. Shalom, haverim!