Sharpened Together - Week 12

Key Scripture: 
1 Corinthians 3:6-7
I planted the seed and Apollos watered it, but God made it grow. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow.

Planting is a common metaphor in scripture, and images of planting are often used to implore faithfulness, trust, patience and perseverance. Galatians 6:9 urges us, “Let us not grow weary in doing good, for in due time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up." James 5:7 declares, "Be patient brothers, until the Lord’s coming. See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, being patient until it receives the early and late rains." This patience is rooted in faith that God will fulfill His promises.

My grandfather was a faithful planter. First a wheat planter, and then a tree planter. I grew up on the farm my grandfather grew up on. He grew up on the farm his grandfather grew up on. When my ancestors arrived in the 1850s the land was covered in pre-colonial trees. Faithful as they were to Genesis 1:28, they subdued and cleared the land to grow wheat. For a few generations they were successful, until by the time my father was born high salt levels in the soil meant rapidly declining wheat yields. So, my grandfather stopped planting wheat and began planting trees, River Red Gums. By the time I was a boy these Gums were fully grown and propagating (self-seeding) a forest of saplings along the creek. Bird life was diverse and abundant; salt levels had plummeted, soil quality had improved dramatically and wheat production in adjacent paddocks was booming again. I had the privilege of returning as a 40-year-old in 2022 to see that the saplings of my childhood were now mature trees propagating their own 3rd generation saplings! My grandfather’s faithful planting, and the natural ways of God’s creation - soil and growth supported by seasonal rains and sunshine - had dramatically transformed the environment. What was on its way to resembling Ezekiel's valley of dry bones (ch. 37) was now resmebling something more like Eden! Grandpa died over 30 years ago, and yet the legacy of his faithful planting lives on.

The same can be true of us regarding faith. What seeds are you planting? Dads will naturally think of faithfully discipling and investing in our children, and this is significant, but I believe God wants us to consider even more than this. What about when we pray for people of peace, and the ways we disciple them and others? Are they colleagues and/or clients in our workplaces? Our neighbours? Are we volunteering and disciplining not only in the church but also outside of it? Just as Jesus sent the 72 in pairs (Luke 10:1), and just as we are unique parts working together as the same body (1 Cor 12, Rom 12), who else has Jesus called us to go with on mission?

Sometimes we get to experience and bear witness to the faithful planting of others. My foster sons’ birth mum was also a foster child. She and her siblings were fostered by a faithful Christian couple and yet they haven’t seen their now-adult foster children’s lives transformed by Jesus yet. They have told me about a faithful old woman who prayed for my foster sons’ birth mum and her siblings before they went into foster care. They told me about how they prayed that their foster daughter’s children would be placed with Christian foster carers (us!). And they have seen fruitfulness of that now long deceased lady’s prayers for this family displayed in the faith of our foster sons, including one’s baptism and public declaration of faith in Jesus. Just like my grandfather’s faithful tree planting, the legacy of this lady’s faithful decades-ago prayers continues to be fruitful.

Remember, the goal is not to see fruit or the harvest, encouraging as that is. No, all we need to be is prayerfully, then actively, faithful. May we be faithful planters, and bear witness to the faithful planting of others. As Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 3:6-7, "I planted the seed and Apollos watered it, but God made it grow. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow."