Day 4, Tuesday, November 19
Read:Ecclesiastes 3
He hath made every thing beautiful in his time. (v. 11)
A bare field after a busy harvest season is a beautiful thing. Just brown earth, sometimes resting under a glorious golden stubble of leftovers. Often in the transition to winter it shimmers with frost, giving the appearance of white, especially under a full moon. I get so much enjoyment from those ‘empty’ fields, now fodder for birds and other wildlife.
Our lives imitate nature this way. Even in the starkest season of a Christian’s life, beauty can be found. Our Creator God is lavish, extravagant, even wasteful in his grace and glory. Everything he plans is beautiful in God’s perfect time.
In ancient Israel, after six harvest seasons the land got to rest for a year (Ex. 23:10-11). God said whatever came up spontaneously would be enough, even for the very poor and the animals. Rest and trust is a rhythm he established for those who love him, whether we farm or not; we work six days and rest on the seventh, a day for trusting God that six days of work is enough.
In the end, the stubble is plowed under, providing nourishment for the soil as it regenerates for the next growing season. That, too, is true of life. We get plowed up and sometimes plowed under, but if we trust the Lord of the harvest, we will also trust his tilling.
As you pray, thank God for the rhythms of harvest and rest, for tilling and planting again.
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