Today we are reading from Mark 4: 26-29:

26 He also said, “The kingdom of God is as if someone would scatter seed on the ground, 27 and would sleep and rise night and day, and the seed would sprout and grow, he does not know how. 28 The earth produces of itself, first the stalk, then the head, then the full grain in the head. 29 But when the grain is ripe, at once he goes in with his sickle, because the harvest has come.”

Today we see another parable from Jesus that deals with farming and planting.  The people of this area understood farming and they understood how hard it can be.  Remember in the parable of the sower how few seeds grew?  Most of them didn’t. The people would have been used to having failure in farming, Israel is a hard place to farm. 

Today, we see the crop explode overnight, with nothing the farmer did.  The text says that he didn’t know how it happened.  How did it happen?  God. Not the farmer.  God did it. The harvest came not because of human effort, but because of God’s grace. 

It is not up to you.  You can’t fix anyone.  You can save anyone.  That’s not your call, that’s not your ability.  Your job, and my job, is to be faithful. That’s it. The rest is up to God.  It is His work, His domain.  He brings the harvest.  He blesses.  He gives.  He does that.

Our job is to be faithful. That’s what we control.  Will must be faithful. That’s our task.  The rest is not up to you. It’s up to God.  He brings the harvest. 

So, today, be faithful with the task in front of you. Be faithful with what you must do.  Be faithful with all things. But, know this, it’s not up to you. It’s up to God.  He blesses and He grows. Let’s be faithful and leave the rest up to Him.  

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