The property where we live was formerly “weinberg”, a terraced mountain covered with wine grapes. This area of Germany is famous for its wines, particularly Rieslings. The grapevines are long gone and the property is now covered with wild strawberries, blackberries and cherries. It’s beautiful in the Spring with all the blossoms.
And it’s that time of year where our ritual is picking wild strawberries each morning for our breakfast Muesli. To Americans, it may sound a bit strange but here in Germany, many people go into the meadows and woods to pick all sorts of wild fruits and nuts.
The wild strawberries are quite a bit smaller than store-bought but worth the effort as they have a more intense flavor. The strawberries ripen over 3-4 weeks and every morning there’s always ripe ones. But I’ve learned that it makes no sense to pick more than you can eat in a day. By next morning, the left-overs are covered in white mold (it’s the same with wild blackberries and “weinberg” peaches).
Learning to Trust that God Supplies Our Daily Needs
It’s a bit like the Israelites gathering manna each morning. If they gathered more than the day’s needs, the left-over was rancid by morning. God was teaching His people to trust that He would supply their needs each and every day. There was no need to worry about tomorrow. God would be there. The same concept is at work in the year of Sabbatical rest for the land:
3 For six years sow your fields, and for six years prune your vineyards and gather their crops. 4 But in the seventh year the land is to have a year of sabbath rest, a sabbath to the Lord. Do not sow your fields or prune your vineyards. . . . 6 Whatever the land yields during the sabbath year will be food for you—for yourself, your male and female servants, and the hired worker and temporary resident who live among you, 7 as well as for your livestock and the wild animals in your land. Leviticus 25
Critically, the landowner had to trust that God would provide enough to feed his family and servants during that entire year.
The Challenge of Farming Should Develop Trust in God
My grandfather farmed and my parents always had a garden. It’s also true for me. Farming is really difficult. It’s not only hard work, but requires trust that God will provide a harvest. One must trust He will bring rain when it’s needed – not too little, not too much, not too early and not too late. One must trust God will protect against crop diseases, infestations, frosts – anything that can hinder the harvest.
The point of a year of sabbatical-rest for the land was to assure no one foolishly concluded the land’s increase came through their own efforts. Living off the land when unplanted and untilled reminds the landholder that all increase comes from God.
That should be apparent to anyone who’s farmed or even had a garden. Plants naturally bear fruit without effort. They can have “up and down” years, but they produce their fruit naturally, without special provision from man. Every morning I’m reminded of this when I reap where I have not sown (Matthew 25:24).
We’ve largely lost sight of this over the last 100 years with the shift from an agrarian to an industrial community. Even where farming is still done, our industrial prowess has produced methods that allow us to reduce or eliminate traditional threats.
We have pesticides against infestations and diseases, ground water from aquifers, fertilizers to obsolete fallowing fields, green-housing to control temperature, selective breeding to enhance harvests – even lights for winter growing (ever seen Holland from the air with greenhouses alight in winter hydroponically growing tomatoes?). All these things give the illusion we can control nature. But the reality is that none of these things come without great costs to the environment.
Our Driving Need to be in Control and its Illusion
Its not just farming that gives the illusion of control. It’s a basic human need to be in control – or at least to feel like we’re in control. The need to be in control is behind much of our technological improvements over the ages. We all want to control the world around us and be assured of desirable outcomes.
The need to be in control manifests itself in ugly, horrible ways. It often brings out the worst behaviors in us, revealing how terribly insecure we are. It can bring conflict and fighting in families, rivalries at work, ugliness in politics and wars between nations. The drive to be in control is at the root of so many of our problems.
I remember when my first wife was diagnosed with an inoperable cancerous brain tumor that would leave her quadriplegic for the final five years of her life. I remember sitting with the surgeon, realizing for the first time in my life I was no longer in control. I couldn’t even influence the outcome. That was the beginning of a long journey, learning to live with uncertainty, learning to trust God, and learning that I was never in control of anything. It was all just an illusion.
Our Fears and Insecurities Drive the Need to be in Control
I’m convinced that behind our driving need to be in control is fear. It’s our inability to face uncertainty that produces fear. Even if we’re happy in the present, there’s insecurity about what the future will bring, and that brings fear. A common response to uncertainty, insecurity and fear is to take charge and strive to control the present and future. But it’s also just an illusion. We can’t even predict the future, never mind control it.
Scripture takes a completely different approach – one that many of us struggle with. Scripture tells us not to worry about tomorrow (Matthew 6:34). In fact, a substantial part of Christ’s Sermon on the Mount teaches that we are not to worry (Matthew 6:25-34). God knows our needs and will provide for us. The rest of God’s creatures don’t sow, reap or store away in barns. God cares for them, and He’ll care much more for us.
The Gospel Really is Good News!
It is easy to miss the significance of Christ’s words. With these words, He announced Eden is reopened in Him (under Eden: Its Symbolism & Implications). It means the curse of unfruitfulness at the Fall (Genesis 3:17-19) has been reversed and fruitfulness restored. We are restored to God’s presence, already enjoying his paradisal, Edenic presence where nothing hinders fruit-bearing and where God provides for all our needs.
But in the new Eden, fruitfulness is now spiritual. Man’s ability to understand spiritual things was lost with his separation from God post-Fall. In Christ, it has been restored. The long-promised “mind that understands”, “eyes that see” and “ears that hear” (Deuteronomy 29:4) has finally arrived in Christ. Moses prophesied One who would come and Israel should to “listen to Him” (Deuteronomy 18:15). It is fulfilled in Christ.
The spiritual unfruitfulness that followed Adam’s sin is now ended. The days in which God’s people were incapable of following God’s laws and incapable of loving God with all their hearts have passed. God’s people can now listen to Him and thus become fruitful again.
Jesus was the One who scattered spiritual seed, the Word (Matthew 13:19-23) that is exceptionally fruitful – “This is the one who produces a crop, yielding a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown” (vs 23), Who is this one that is fruitful? It is “someone who hears the word and understands it” – an apparent echo to Deuteronomy 18:15 where Jesus is the Word!
The best news is that Jesus is the One who is supremely fruitful, providing the ultimate example of fruitfulness in His death, a seed that fell to the ground but produced many seeds (John 12:24).
The Good News for Each of Us
There are times when I feel thoroughly unfruitful for Christ. Friends backslide and leave the church and I feel like I have no influence to change the outcome. Others I help disciple become consumed with the cares of this world and slip away. I lament that my words and my witness are so unfruitful. They seem to change nothing. I sometimes fear for these people and it’s totally outside my control.
It’s why I have a garden and pick wild berries. It keeps me grounded. It’s a reminder that I can spiritually plant, water and weed but God gives the increase (1 Corinthians 3:6). He alone brings the fruit. I need not fear, not even an ineffective witness. God has promised that His Word will not return empty but accomplishes His purpose (Isaiah 55:11) – regardless the spiritual drought, blight, infestation or flood that may attack us. Rejoice! You are part of God’s new fruitful Edenic garden!