The Breaking

"To everything there is a season, a time for every purpose under heaven.." Ecclesiastes 3:1

The ground lay barren except for the green grass that seems to automatically grow. But it was made for more whether it knew it or not. Maybe it did know it. Maybe it even ached to produce and multiply. Isn't that God's intention? Wasn't everything God made and called good designed to multiply?

The ground can't multiply itself, but it can aid so many things in their purpose to multiply and supply the needs of others, thus fulfilling its purpose.

Think of it, a tree can provide beauty to look upon, shade from the hot sun, a place for birds to sit and sing, a place for nests to aid in new life. If it's a fruit tree, it also produces fruit for people and other animals, even worms. Have you ever seen a worm in your apple? What a picture of God's design for communion, for community, for everything working together for good.

Back to the barren ground. It's time. It’s time for it to do more, to contribute more. Will it be surprised by all it can aid in yielding?

But, before the rejoicing over the goodness and abundance of the crops to come, the ground must be prepared to produce. If seeds were sown now, there's a slight possibility some may grow, but to see the abundance of the possibility, the ground must be prepared.

First comes the large iron blades that cut deep. What must the ground be thinking as those blades begin to tear through the soil? Row after row the deep cuts as the ground is broken and the earth overturned.

This is just the first step. Next comes smaller blades, but blades just the same. More cutting. More tearing to pieces and breaking apart, turning those large clumps of dirt into small particles. With all the cutting as the pieces yield to the blades and become smaller and smaller still, the earth begins to level again. No longer huge mounds that can't be used, but small pieces that spread evenly. Its appearance changes, but it's the same dirt. It's simply becoming more usable.

Here they come again. More blades. Different this time, but blades still the same. More breaking. More tearing. More ripping apart.

Now the ground is ready to receive the seed. Now the seed can be safely planted and covered by the prepared earth. The earth will surround it and cover it. It will provide nutrients to the seed. But wait. The earth notices that even the seed must go through a change. Even the seed is broken and must die to self in order to produce even more.

With the help of the sun and water and the passing of time, the transformed little seed begins to make its way through the earth. It looks completely different now. No longer in seed form, but now a sprout of something new. And there it will grow as it continues to be supported by the earth, the water, the sun and even the Farmer who keeps its surrounding cleared of weeds and other threats that would cause it harm.

But wait, what is happening now? It's expanding. It's beginning to reproduce multiples of the very thing it came from. As it looks around, to its surprise, it sees multiples of itself, but it also sees many other varieties of things growing around it.

While they are all different, they are all fulfilling their purpose. They are all multiplying as they are anticipating the return of the Farmer and the delight they will see in his face as he gathers them to himself.

We, like the ground and the little seed, are designed for more than just to exist. It is in the yielding, breaking, transforming and the waiting that the reproducing and multiplying takes place.

It is not done on our own. Just as the ground didn't break on its own, we typically don't break on our own. It's through circumstances or words and actions of others that the breaking begins.

From there it's a process of trying to make sense of it all. Of taking the large clumps and breaking them down even further. Some we will do on our own. Some with the help of others. Hopefully with the help of the Master if we will allow it.

If we can see there is a greater purpose, if we can know or at least believe good can and will come from this, then we can yield to and cooperate with the process. It doesn't mean the process isn't still painful. It doesn't mean the waiting is easy. But it means we can find and have joy even in the middle of it knowing and anticipating the fruit that will come from it and the greater reward of pleasing the Master.

Hebrews 12:1-2 “Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.”

James 1:2-4 “My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.”

Luke 6:22-23 “Blessed are you when men hate you, and when they exclude you, and when they revile you, and cast out your name as evil, for the Son of Man's sake. Rejoice in that day and leap for joy! For indeed your reward is great in heaven, for in like manner their fathers did to the prophets.”

Genesis 1:28a “Then God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply.”

John 15:16a “You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should remain.”