Growth

Each morning, I look out my back window to see what has developed following the night’s rest. What will the earth bring forth; what will the fertile soil yield in the day’s sun?

Since the time of Adam, each seed has been planted by the sweat of labor, first tilling the soil to soften the earth while removing the rocks in preparation for the planting. One by one, the seeds are pressed into the soft earth for the long wait. Then one morning there appears “first the blade, then the head, then the grain in the head.” (Mark 4:28) With all the hopes of a future bounty, the tender shoots are nurtured by calloused hands and silent prayer until one day the earth brings forth her promised harvest.

The color is green. That is to say that the color of growing things is green…at least at their start. And growth means change. Absent change, the earth would lay fallow and the world would starve. Change is the required ingredient to offer the certainty that tomorrow will come at all. Green is the color.

The church season following the day of Pentecost is simply referred to as “ordinary times,” ordinary times of extraordinary potential. Potential because just as not every field is tilled, nor every plant watered, the “green season” is often squandered with little change having happened. But this potential need not be wasted. There is still time to till the “field of dreams” within the soul. There is time and always needs for a little weed pulling. And what of the sacramental nurture, the “miracle grow” given by God to strengthen the hands and the heart of the tiller, and all are to be tillers. There is much to be done, but few to do it. (John 4:35)

So, while you travel about in the warmth of the summer season, remember that there is One who looks down from the window of heaven with the impatience of the gardener to see what growth, what change will His planting bring forth. Until that great day, we are but migrant workers in a land not our own. So then even in our rest, our time is not our own. Our time belongs to Him who sent us forth. It is for us to use it wisely even in our rest. 

Amen.