Waking up in the morning with a thought screaming in my head that “relationships are like farmers and farming”. How so?, I asked….
The quality of any relationship is a combination of different factors just like harvest for a farmer. The wise farmer is the one who can and does use these factors together with the view to reaping high quality harvest: By factors we refer to the triangle made of Farmer – Nature – God.
The farmer brings knowledge, wisdom gained through years of experience in farming and inherited insights from forefathers, skills, seeds, technology, assets (finances and workers).
Nature brings soil, rain, storms, insects (flies), rats, drought….
God is the Sovereign Lord or overarching power in regards to farmer and nature, both depend and answer to God -this is true even though some men/women (atheists and agnostics) don’t think so but their thinking changes nothing to the facts of life, does it?
To put it in context, let’s consider 2 Chronicles 7:13, “When I shut the heavens so that there is no rain, or command locusts to devour the land or send a plague among my people, if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.”
Religious people often give the impression that Sin belongs to the domain of religion only, that is unfortunate because sin simply means missing the Mark which has to do with the creator’s (God) will or designs in creation (plans and purposes reflecting His will) -talking about the principles (laws of nature) whereby creation functions and specific to each created thing and order.
The verse above suggests that wicked ways account for the heavens being shut by God so that there is no rain (drought). It is important to note that the notion of “wicked ways” evokes multidimensional relationships, including humans’. It is interesting to note that the verse reveals the land needing healing which suggests limited ability to produce harvest. Don’t we all take sick leaves?….
Although there could be no harvest without the farmer and what he/she brings, the fact remains that there have been times where there was no harvest despite the farmer and what he/she brought. For example, the drought is no respecter of farmer. Australian farmers better understand what we mean….
However, nature itself, that is, good soil quality and rain in season…, cannot produce good harvest without the farmer and especially what he/she brings. In fact, the farmer chooses the seed to plant and makes sure to remove weeds and protect the crops…. However, a farmer’s control over the harvest is limited by nature’s response, and more. The farmer must work with nature to be successful, but both can function optimally only to the extent that both conform to the laws of nature or creative principles that govern them or God’s purposes for each one of them.
We noted that nature is no respecter of farmers. It does not comply with a farmer’s wishes or obligated to his/her will. Hence, apostle Paul rightly stated “do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap”( Galatians 6:7), which doesn’t exempt women, of course. One does not plant chilies and wish to reap apples and have nature comply with his/her wish….
Nature responds only to God the Creator in the sense that it works according to the principles (laws of nature) that govern it -even nature has needs…. A farmer who understands the laws of nature can tap into it’s full potential as to enjoy exceptional harvests -understanding the laws of nature is critical to the issues pertaining to sustainability, isn’t?
How does all this apply to relationships?
This will be the focus of a series of meditation on relationships as the Lord leads and enables us.
May God help us all.
