Starting tomorrow morning, just for a day: no bacon, eggs or bread, no fruit, coffee or nuts, no steak or queso, no clothes to wear, and no using paper.
That’s a day without farmers, who provide all those blessings to our world.
Jesus lived in an agrarian society. Jesus taught with lots of farming terminology like fields, grain, sheep, harvest, barns, workers and more. Jesus teaches us to appreciate farmers. Jesus is really a farmer himself.
Jesus plants the seeds of his word and works resourcefully so that they grow.
“That same day Jesus went out of the house and sat by the lake. Such large crowds gathered around him that he got into a boat and sat in it, while all the people stood on the shore” (Matthew 13:1,2).
First Jesus is in a house. Next, he’s by a lake. And then, he’s on a boat. Why? Because “such large crowds gathered around him.” People wanted to hear Jesus, and Jesus wanted people to hear him.
In the house, people outside couldn’t hear him. So he moved out by the lake, but then people crowded and muffled his voice. So Jesus grabbed a boat, paddled out into the water, and continued teaching as his voice carried over the water. Jesus had things so important, so life-changing, he didn’t want anyone to miss out.
Like a hard-working farmer, Jesus is resourceful. He figures out a way for you to hear his words.
If you can’t hear him in your own house, Jesus finds a way for you to hear his words on Christian radio.
If you’re too busy during the day, he’ll find a way for his words to speak to you through another Christian’s story, a devotion sent via email (um, like this), a piece of Christian jewelry, a podcast, a video.
He’s always speaking, always teaching, always finding a way to plant his words. Listen for them, and appreciate Farmer Jesus!
PRAYER: Jesus, I love you and your words. I want more of you and your words. Thank you for planting them so faithfully. Work in me more of a receiving heart and mind so that your word will grow in me. And bear fruit for others. Amen.
LISTEN TO THIS: In a 1978 speech to Future Farmers of America, radio personality Paul Harvey shared his appreciation for farmers with words eventually made more famous by an ad for Dodge trucks during a Super Bowl. Here is some of what he poetically pictured, after God had created the world …