Come unto me, all [ye] that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
Matthew 11:28
This is the verse that hung on my bedroom wall for years. Years before I knew God. It breathed hope into me.
It had been a gift, but in reality it was a seed.
A seed, stitched upon fabric stretched tightly across a wooden embroidery hoop and framed within an edging of lace. Hanging there by a nail, it embedded itself into the fabric of my life wrapping roots into my daily routine and around my day-to-day habits. I didn’t know it would cause a parching inside of me, create a drawing closer to those who have water flowing from their bellies. I wouldn’t have been able to understand the drawing of living waters at the well, but I began to feel it’s calling.
These perfect words spoke over me directly to the situation they would call me from. God’s timing is perfect, even when we can’t make sense of it. Years before I heard the calling He dropped it in my hands, a seed that planted in my heart and the soil of my life covered it. It lay there waiting, thirsty, calling.
Another parable put he forth unto them, saying, The kingdom of heaven is likened unto a man which sowed good seed in his field:
Matthew 13:24 (KJV)
The one who sowed that seed in my life must have considered my heart to be part of their field. A field someone else had plowed, another gathered stones from, and while yet another plucked weeds, and then so many more brought water. And God, being so gracious, caused growth at the right time.
I have planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the increase.
1Corinthians 3:6 (KJV)
If I were to cast my eyes to my own field, what would I see but all the hearts of those whom I love around me? And, even when a heart seems to be completely closed to understanding, we cannot stop planting. Because there are times long before the ears are opened when the heart may be ready for a seed, and we must drop in a word so the breathe of God can begin to stir life into that heart.
Deuteronomy 6:5-9 (NIV)
5 Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. 6 These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. 7 Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. 8 Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. 9 Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.
God implored the Israelites to completely immerse themselves within His word with all their body, spirit, and mind. I cannot take for granted the obvious effect this would have had to a foreigner. Though deaf to the voice of God, they would not be able to deny His presence in the lives of His followers. They would have been able to see it tied upon ones brow and hands, to see in the Israelites homes upon entering in past His holy word. They would even have heard it in the conversations of their children and as they all spoke to each other.
What would it be like to live a life so deeply steeped in scripture that it cannot be separated from who I am? This sets a desire in me to place scriptures in my house to be seen by a visitor as they walk through the places His words are present, perhaps chancing to collect a seed in passing. I want to scrawl out verses intended for blessing at the bottom of hand-written notes or pen one for encouragement on a note left for my waiter along with his tip. Tossing seed in my field, chancing growth.
Love calls out hope to people in the midst of their circumstances, but it needs a hand willing to deliver the message. Will you be that hand to deliver the seed?
