A Load of Manure
Yesterday my kids and I attended our last regular service at the church we have attended for the last five years. It was a very heartfelt time as we said goodbye to the people we have come to love and know and consider family. Over the years we have had wonderful opportunities to hang out, eat, talk, share our faith, share our struggles and love one another.
The church gave each of my kids a small gift and to our family a very generous gift. I was taken aback by the love and care of so many people. The whole church gathered around my children and i and laid hands on on us and wept and prayed many kind blessings.
As the service was concluding one gentleman approached me and said he had a vision during the prayer time. He described it as my family was a field, rough empty and barren. He said that over the last period of time it has been like a load of manure has been dumped on us and it has been rough. The he took a moment and offered the encouragement that even though the manure has been an awful thing once it is mixed in our lives we will be fertile and abundant again. I took encouragement from those words because I sure have felt like I have been under the manure pile for awhile.
As I was traveling for work today I spent a bit of time reflecting on what he said and I was again touched by the vision of being fertile and abundant again. I also was taken aback for a moment as I believe I saw another side to the vision. The field rough and barren (except for a pile of weeds) has this big pile of manure sitting on it, but then a tractor begins to roll over it, breaking it up and mixing the soil, manure and weeds all together and ploughs one over and under and mixing. At this point the manure is no longer manure, but fertilizer. As the tractor rolls past it is hard to distinguish between the old soil and the fertilizer as they become intermingled, but the weeds are still obvious. Then the farmer comes back and begins to rake out the weeds.
If you didnt get the picture it is this: There still has to be a breaking even when we feel like we are under the manure pile and the weeds still need tending to.
In Matthew 13, Jesus refers to this kind of soil as the good soil, the kind that will bear fruit. I walked away challenged and desirous to be that soil, but knowing I will have to endure some plowing and weed plucking.
