My garden is a continual source of encouragement for
me. Every year, what looks like an
impossibility becomes a reality—an expanse of bare (or worse yet, weedy)
ground, transformed into an abundant harvest that feeds us all year long. Every spring, as I pick rocks, chop up dirt
clumps, and try to pull out stubborn weeds, I wonder what are the odds that each
tiny seed will somehow get through all the obstacles and survive to get above
the ground, never mind grow to maturity!
It’s no wonder that God put the first man, Adam, in a
garden. It’s a place where miracles
happen every day, and yet where faith and patience are daily challenged. And it’s no surprise that the Bible is full
of analogies comparing the work of God to agriculture.
Often as I work in my garden, I think about the parable that
Jesus told, of the sower who went forth sowing the seed—“and the seed is the
Word of God,” Jesus said. Some of the
seed was plucked up by birds, or scorched by the sun, or choked by weeds—but
some of it resulted in new life, and fruit so abundant that it made up for all
the disappointments.
The analogy is continued by Paul in 1 Corinthians 3:6, “I
planted, Apollos watered, but God was causing the growth.” We hear quite a lot in Paul’s other letters
about that planting—about the things that he suffered for the sake of sharing
the good seed of the Word of God. And we
readily acknowledge that God causes the growth—every gardener knows how
helpless he is to make the seed grow. But often we forget about that little
phrase, “Apollos watered.”
I was watering the other night, and thinking how much I respect the
people who are God’s waterers. There is
something exciting about planting a seed—all the labor of preparing the soil
culminates in that action of dropping the seed in the ground so that the
miracle may begin. True, it is hard to
believe that anything can come of that tiny seed. But to water, day after day,
when nothing can be seen but bare ground and the beginnings of weeds, requires
enduring faith and perseverance.
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The sower’s work is done when the seed is nestled in the
soil, but the work of the waterer continues, not just until the seed sprouts,
but long after, until the roots grow deep and strong. Just so the spiritual waterer continues to
nourish the seed of God’s Word sown in a person’s heart, until it brings about
new life—and then he continues to nurture that flickering bit of life until it
has learned to draw its strength directly from God. When the fragile tendrils
of green poke above the soil, he will be there, watering gently so that the
tiny plant is not disturbed. As the hot
months continue and the seedling grows—oh, so slowly!—he will continue pouring
out, pouring out, into soil which greedily drinks up every drop. Truth administered wrongly can be
destructive, as the wise waterer knows.
And yet, it is vital to spiritual life, and so he goes on, encouraging,
exhorting, explaining and re-explaining, until spiritual understanding and
strength develops.
If it was not for the assurance that “God causes the
growth,” he might be tempted to give up. But there is one thing that keeps him
going, and that is the assurance that the seed is good seed, and the fruit will
be sweet, and that the Owner of the garden is worthy of his diligent labor.
So if you’re one of God’s waterers, please don’t give
up. And though you may feel like you’re
mixing an awful lot of blood, sweat, and tears in that watering can of yours,
take heart. The Lord knows, and perhaps
somewhere in heaven He is making a little note with your name in the place of
Apollos, “He watered.”
