Bringing in the harvest

It’s way to soon to do any gardening here in Western New York, but my wife loves to garden. She usually does tomatoes, peppers, squash, and a few other things as the mood strikes, usually with several variations of each.  Each year she tries different things, and year, we are often surprised by what did well, and sometimes, what didn't do well.  

One of the surprises from a few years ago were potatoes. We’ve only grown potatoes once before, and I think we had probably harvested way too late. The plants were all dead and gone – and I mean actually gone - the stems are broken off and rotted away.  I was really hard to know where to dig.

So we went around everywhere in the general area where she thought they might be, she has so far dug in about a six foot by ten foot area, turning the dirt about six inches deep, and if she finds any potatoes, she digs deeper there.

It was kind of fun, because you never knew where you’d find them, and when you do find them, you never knew how many you might find, or how big they might be. There were anywhere from two to ten potatoes in each hole, ranging in size from a good size for baking, to less than a half inch! Every hole is different; it was like hunting for treasure.  This year we discovered container gardening for potatoes, and it had worked out much better.  We just dumped the container out, and there were the potatoes.  No digging!

Before the containers, our approach to finding these potatoes might have seemed a little unorthodox (digging everywhere until you find one, then dig deeper there), that might be a good way to live our life of faith.

In Experiencing God, Henry Blackaby tells us the best way to live our life of faith is to look for where God is already working, and join him there.

In the garden, we looked fairly shallow for a potato, knowing that if we found one there, there may be more below, so that’s where we concentrated our efforts. If we truly want to be available to God, we should look for signs that he is working, and concentrate our efforts there.

As you go through your day today, look for signs of God at work. A couple of sure fire ways to know where God is working is to look for people asking about God, asking about things of faith. We know that no one comes to faith in Christ without being drawn by the Holy Spirit, so if someone is questioning or seeking, God must be working there, drawing that person to Himself. That would be a good place for you to work also. Look for blessings, answered prayers, and other signs that God is working. Join Him there, dig deeper than the quick hello, and concentrate your efforts there. The harvest will be plentiful.