Eupan may start in your backyard
We planted a garden several weeks back. I do not even remember when we planted for sure.
We spent time today working it. Perhaps 6 total "man" hours were involved today.
But, the mystery is that over the past several weeks - in incremental moment and times, the work of creation has been doing its work. While I believe in God - and uniquely believe in who God is made known in the person of Jesus - I like the language of Jesus in parables concerning gardens, soil, seeds, and harvest. In a parable of Jesus in Mark's Gospel, Jesus relates the following - which I have chosen to render in "my own translation" simply for consideration and pause - adding periods to slow down our reading:
It is also like this with the Kingdom.
A man scatters seed.
On the earth.
Night.
Day.
He sleeps.
He wakes.
The seed sprouts.
The seed grows.
He does not know how.
By itself.
The soil produces.
Grain.
First the stalk.
Then the head.
Then the full kernel in the head.
As soon as the grain is ripe.
He harvests.
The harvest has come.
One of the things I value about this parable, and the lessons I am learning in the the garden, has to do with how unimportant I am in "creating" it and "making" "it" happen.
We spent a few hours in the garden today - and there has been thought and intention and planning - but the good of the garden happens mostly -
- without me.
Our six hours of work pale in comparison the the hours of "work" that happen with each ray of the sun and each droplet of rain - that I can neither create nor prevent.
It grows of its own.
I scatter, but I can not make it grow.
My hope, my prayer, my desire is that we will find ways to make eupan happen.
I will scatter the possibilities of it, and learn to trust with patience and enduring calm that night and day, as I sleep and rise, somehow apart from my knowing, goodness will sprout and produce a harvest of goodness.
Towards eupan.
~ marty alan michelson, ph.d.
(footnote - several tomato plants are now in the ground - and the corn rows that did not survive a late freeze, have been reseeded. Potato plants are growing well, peppers are not quite ripe, and the carrots and spinach have produced their leaves as they emerge.)
We spent time today working it. Perhaps 6 total "man" hours were involved today.
But, the mystery is that over the past several weeks - in incremental moment and times, the work of creation has been doing its work. While I believe in God - and uniquely believe in who God is made known in the person of Jesus - I like the language of Jesus in parables concerning gardens, soil, seeds, and harvest. In a parable of Jesus in Mark's Gospel, Jesus relates the following - which I have chosen to render in "my own translation" simply for consideration and pause - adding periods to slow down our reading:
It is also like this with the Kingdom.
A man scatters seed.
On the earth.
Night.
Day.
He sleeps.
He wakes.
The seed sprouts.
The seed grows.
He does not know how.
By itself.
The soil produces.
Grain.
First the stalk.
Then the head.
Then the full kernel in the head.
As soon as the grain is ripe.
He harvests.
The harvest has come.
One of the things I value about this parable, and the lessons I am learning in the the garden, has to do with how unimportant I am in "creating" it and "making" "it" happen.
We spent a few hours in the garden today - and there has been thought and intention and planning - but the good of the garden happens mostly -
- without me.
Our six hours of work pale in comparison the the hours of "work" that happen with each ray of the sun and each droplet of rain - that I can neither create nor prevent.
It grows of its own.
I scatter, but I can not make it grow.
My hope, my prayer, my desire is that we will find ways to make eupan happen.
I will scatter the possibilities of it, and learn to trust with patience and enduring calm that night and day, as I sleep and rise, somehow apart from my knowing, goodness will sprout and produce a harvest of goodness.
Towards eupan.
~ marty alan michelson, ph.d.
(footnote - several tomato plants are now in the ground - and the corn rows that did not survive a late freeze, have been reseeded. Potato plants are growing well, peppers are not quite ripe, and the carrots and spinach have produced their leaves as they emerge.)
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