Seeding

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Reading: Hosea 7-14

I vaguely remember a movie, probably of the “B” category, where the villain had discovered a way to control the weather. Of course, he tried to use his discovery for evil purposes and had to be predictably subdued by the gallant hero and his beautiful sidekick.

Controlling weather is not entirely fiction. Experiments with cloud seeding have been going on for many years. I read a detailed explanation online (most of which I didn’t understand) complete with diagrams detailing how various substances were dumped from planes into clouds in order to manufacture what nature seemed resistant to produce on on its own. The jury is still out as to whether or not any of these experiments ever really accomplished anything that wouldn’t have happen anyway.

But there is one kind of “cloud seeding” that we are really good at and that always produces predictable results. I’ve been reading through Hosea these last few days and came across this familiar verse during my travels: “They sow the wind and reap the whirlwind” (Hosea 8:7, NIV). From this verse comes the adage: “you reap what you sow.” There are probably a host of other phrases that basically mean the same thing. The context in this passage is God’s recounting of the sins of His people and the consequences that those sins were bringing down on their heads. These prophetic books tend to be really depressing—especially when it’s so easy to think of modern day parallels!

However, we all know the adage is true; we do reap what we sow. That can be a negative and, thank the Lord, it can be positive as well. We don’t have to go any farther than Hosea 10:12 to discover those positives.

“Sow for yourselves righteousness, reap the fruit of unfailing love, and break up your unplowed ground, for it is time to seek the Lord, until he comes and showers righteousness on you.”

The right seed produces the right fruit—and vice versa. A seed is a small thing with huge potential. Wise is the person who chooses those seeds carefully and tends them judiciously.