Sharing Tomatoes

I finally got a small garden planted. It is just a few tomato plants, some cucumber plants and some yellow squash. I do not plant very much and therefore do not expect a lot. I hope to go through a season of getting enough to share with our children and enjoy some fresh fruit of our labors. We enjoy sharing the vegetables with loved ones. We do not enjoy sharing with the squirrels.

I like squirrels. They are cute and fun to watch. I especially like them in season, well seasoned that is, with mashed potatoes and gravy, although I have not had them that way in a few years. Besides, these are town squirrels and I seem to be stuck with them. I just don’t like them eating my tomatoes.

I talked to one person who was trapping her squirrels and taking them out of town. I hope it works. I tried getting rid of the squirrels years ago, not here. My efforts did not seem to matter. Squirrels seem to sense a vacuum and rush to fill the space with more squirrels. I have thought about building a cage around the garden to protect it from the squirrels. It seems like a lot of effort for a few tomatoes.

Another person I talked to said that my problem was that I feed the birds and the bird feed keeps the squirrels around. That makes sense. When you do something good it will attract all kinds of responses. I put out the feed for the cardinals, finches, and an occasional bluebird. Of course, in addition to the “pretty” birds I also get the rest of the birds in the neighborhood. I just put out the feed. I don’t get to pick out the birds, or the squirrels, which eat at my feeder.

Should we not also be this way about the word of God? We cannot protect God’s Word or pick His people to suit ourselves. Jesus gave us the parable of The Sower, in which the seed of the word was thrown out in all directions, (Matthew 13). The result depended on where the seed landed. But He made it clear that the result is ultimately in God’s hands. The responsibility for sowing, and sowing everywhere, is ours. Even if the squirrels get some.
Bro. Robin

More

Last night at the senior banquet I overheard a senior make a very wise observation. She was talking about graduating and heading for college and observed that she finally got to the top and now she will be starting at the bottom again. Now that she is a senior she will soon be a freshman again! Others at the table added that this will not be the last time but she will start over at the bottom many times in her life to come. They cited graduate school, jobs, marriage, and family among the experience in life that each requires us to start over at the bottom and work our way to the top. No matter how far we have come there is more.

Life is about new beginnings. Every stage and step of life we start something new. We are always learning and growing. It never stops. Even the end of this physical life is not the end. There is more.

As I read about eternity in the Bible I wonder how far do we really progress in this life? I know this is not the end but is this the middle, or just the beginning? I am convinced that on a scale of eternity our short span of life is just the beginning. We go from here to the presence of God, then Heaven. The scriptures tell us that in Heaven we go from under the altar to Jesus’ Banquet Hall, then the Millennium, followed by a season of rebellion, victory, and the New Jerusalem. The scriptures close with a mysterious reference to gate of the city that are never closed, indicating that even then there is more.

I am thankful today that we will never reach the end. We may not know what is coming. We do know who will get us there safely. By grace through faith in Jesus Christ there will always be more. He has also promised that it will always work together for good.

Bro. Robin