A major resource, Scripture uses the illustrations, analogies and parables of nature to teach spiritual truth. To understand the nature and characteristics of the world and firmament is to gain a context for life both for the here and the hereafter. What we recognize as agricultural analogies (parables) were used by writers, prophets, Jesus and their sympathetic contemporaries to teach something about God and his relationship to mankind – and mankind to God. It is likely that we make too little application, or miss meanings that might be accented if we were to give more time to the educational procedure. For example, Scripture informs of the Fruit of the Holy Spirit. Fruit comes from a plant – tree, vine, or bush. The sources must be watered. They need sunlight and cultivation. The Fruit of the Holy Spirit must be watered and cultivated in Christian lives if the flower and fruit are to be what they were meant to be.
What is that water? It is made up of elements. One of these is prayer. Prayer waters the vines of our lives. Without prayer we can’t reap quality fruit. Without devout attitude, another factor, we can’t cultivate the soil for the sweetness of the Fruit of the Spirit in our lives. All this requires physical/spiritual work, another factor found in developing the soul/spirit. So we are reminded of matters that we give little attention to in the education we seek for effective and satisfactory living as faithful Christians. Patience, gentleness, and the like attitudes must become a part of us. We all know persons we would not talk to about anything because they are impatient. They may be willing to be listened to, but they will not give more than passing gesture to others. They are too important for the little things that make life better for persons to whom they could minister, if they would. We sometimes cry out of loneliness, or uncertainty, or disappointment that becomes more severe than wounds of physical accident.
If we wait for major needs in the lives of people we will have a great deal of time to use selfishly. The big issues come now and then. We live, day by day, in the smaller units of experience. Yesterday, a TV program about the neglect of depression in new mothers has been found to affect the newborn infant for life. The physician and nurse, we are told, do not take the matter as important in the light of the dramatic entrance of a life. A lift of some sort is needed, a crutch perhaps for a little while, something that makes our gifts of God meaningful for the person in need. The little seams of our lives must hold together, or the larger cloth falls away. Those who water and cultivate the Fruit of the Spirit in their lives will be blessed of God in the ripening of the Fruit. The little matters of our lives are important – far more than we believe.
Perceptive persons know how much damage is caused by impatience. The child is cast down because a feeling, so important to the child, is taken as inconsequential by the parent. Recently a dear lady told me she related to her father, but not so much to her mother. He listened, and responded, perhaps to two things – the feelings of the daughter, and the problems that troubled her. Nearly all problems include both matters, the problem itself and the reaction or response of the person bearing the problem. Small in the eyes of the outsider: large for the person bearing the matter. (Put a tiny stone in your shoe to get what is meant here.) As we read the gospels we discover that Jesus tended to deal with these issues. Out of this we discover the gentle Jesus. The feeling is real, even if the problem is ill handled by the person, even misunderstood. In dealing with the woman at the well, Jesus worked with two matters, the situation of the woman, and the matter of where spiritual truth might be found. The disciples held back because they could not relate to a Samaritan woman. (She was a tiny stone in the shoe.) When all factors are taken together (the seed, the soil, the service to the process, and the context) there is fruit relating to the strong compassion of God. Without the whole context, something is lost. With it, life is full, and service has been given. We do well to think of the meaning of a smiling coo of a mother to an infant, of an encouraging word from a father to his child, of the touch from a loved one, of a call of encouragement, of a word of wisdom, of a small gift of recognition, and of the myriad actions that give a quiet, special meaning to others. Always serving in some way, they are sometimes life-changing for good. Each day we ought to say something that inspirits at least one person with whom we come in contact. *Mark W. Lee, Sr. — 2016, 2020