Fallow Fields

Winter is coming in some parts of the world. The fields that yielded so much abundance over the last few months lie barren. Soon they will grow crusty with frost, then the first skiff of snow will brush them. Eventually they will disappear under a blanket of white, their glorious harvest all but forgotten.

There are times when our lives seem like those barren fields, frozen in time. We are dormant, unproductive to the naked eye.

But there is something that the farmer knows that most of us don't consider. While we struggle with boots, gloves, and scrapping ice off the windshield, the farmer is planning for the spring. He's thinking seeds and plowing. He's already looking toward the harvest.

James 5:7, 8 says: "Be patient, then, brothers, until the Lord's coming. See how the farmer waits for the land to yield its valuable crop and how patient he is for the autumn and spring rains. You too, be patient and stand firm, because the Lord's coming is near."

At the end of his book, James returns to the theme with which he began his letter—perseverance. The farmer doesn't sell the farm over the winter, frustrated that nothing is happening out there in his fields.

And so it should be in our walk with God. There will be barren times, winter days, frozen moments. James reminds his readers to persevere, to hang on, to keep going even in the dark days of winter.

Keep planning for the harvest. Spring is coming. The Lord is near and He's already got the seed catalogue out in anticipation of the abundance to come.

Comments

  1. As a prairie dweller surrounded by farmers I say Amen! Great words Lynda.

    My husband, the gardener, begins to browse and mark and select his seeds from catalogues during the darkest and coldest nights of winter, and I have learned to join him in this, remembering the spring and new life return.

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  2. Thank you for this word, Lynda. Very timely for me this morning. I live near the ocean and God is always chiding me that I think I would like to live at "high tide" all the time but that the shore needs "low tide" to recover from all the excitement of deep waters. You have a wonderful way with words. Highly readable. Thank you!

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