Isaiah 61:11 “For as the earth bursts with spring wildflowers, and as a garden cascades with blossoms, So the Master, God, brings righteousness into full bloom and puts praise on display before the nations.”
Spring is one of the most exciting times of the year. All the bare trees bud into beautiful colors that only God can paint from His canvas of this world.
I've noticed that times have really changed, even in the way people plant crops in the spring. Recently I watched as a large field, that still had the broken stubble of the previous year’s soybeans, experience the transformation into a field of freshly planted corn.
First a machine came into the field and spread a chemical that was designed to kill any new weeds. The next morning an enormous machine drove into the field pulling a cylinder of liquid. This all-in-one machine began moving through the field at an extremely fast pace. Upon closer examination, I noticed that as it passed through the field the soil was tilled, the fertilizer injected into the dirt, the seeds planted, and the ground was covered over the top. Even though the land looks terrible today, I know that in just a few short weeks, a new crop will emerge.
When in college, a group of us got a real brainstorm for a weekend activity. In early February we went to a local garden store and bought a bag of ammonia nitrate, which is a fast growing fertilizer (before it was illegal to purchase over the counter). Then late one night we got a coffee can and punched small holes in the bottom of the can. On a farmer’s hillside at the edge of town, late into the night, we carefully spread the fertilizer to spell out words in the field. For months no one could tell that anything had been done to the soil.
Spring came and the grass began to turn from brown to green, the letters sprang out of the ground to spell the name of our college. So as everyone drove down the highway they could see “Milligan College” above the rest of the grass in the field. Some thought it was a mystery and others thought it might be a miracle or sign from God. Still others had no idea how that could happen.
As we train our children, it is often frustrating to think that they hear very little of what we say or pay no attention to our training. They say we are just “out of touch” with their generation. They even believe that parents are the “dumbest” people in the world. Yet God wants us to keep teaching by example, words, actions, and prayer. We never need to give up and just be passive, because years later what we have taught will be brought to light and applied by our children to their lives. Particularly when our children go through life’s struggles they will recall your words and the principles where you were consistent .
Each year that my children get older they rediscover that Dad did know some things about life. The “fertilizer” planted years before now has reaped a bountiful cropin how they are investing in their children.
We need to make sure to spread fertilizer of God’s love each day for the people we influence. Someday we will see a great return for the time we invested in other lives.
Spring is here and it is time to start planting.
