Saturday, September 7, 2019
1 John 3:16 – The way we came to know love was that [Christ] laid down his life for us; so we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers.
Jesus tells us that it is easy to love the ones we love; it is difficult to love those who do us harm. This is one of his most fundamental – and most difficult – lessons for us.
God says: Believe me when I say that I understand that you do not want to love your enemies; yet this is the fruit I ask you to bear, the harvest I ask you to reap. When the grain of wheat breaks open to plant something new, it plants my love within a hardened heart. You become frustrated with the world and yet all of your struggling changes very little. Plant the seeds I have given you to sow – use the gifts I have given you. And do not worry about the weeds that grow up with the wheat. My workers will tend to them in good time. Do not worry about how much rain must fall and where you will find the harvesters. I am with you always, offering you my love . . . laying down my life for you.
Let us take up the gifts we have been given to share. Let us use God’s gifts lovingly. And let us offer ourselves as broken grains of wheat in the Spirit. Let us offer ourselves up to rise again in newness bearing fruit for the master harvester. In this way we come to know Christ’s love.
A re-post from August 17, 2012.
Image from: http://agropedia.iitk.ac.in/?q=content/time-line-based-wheat-practices
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