Peas and Carrots

Peas & Carrots

1-1-09

I have a garden in my back yard that the Lord occasionally uses as an illustration for things He wants to teach me. Being winter, I have had dreams where the Lord has shown me bulbs that I planted, poking their heads out of the soil. In these dreams He pointed out that there is growth during the resting periods of our lives, symbolized by the earth resting in the winter. He also has spoken about the winter of our lives for those of us who are entering middle and older ages. It is a time of bringing forth a harvest regardless of any restrictions brought on by our physical age.

In my most recent dream the Lord showed that I had pulled up my vegetable garden at the end of the season, being winter. Though there were still peas pods on the stalks, I put them aside to become compost because the pods were old-looking. Yet, an angel talked to me later, asking why I had done this. After awaking from the dream I remembered that the prior day I had done the very thing that was in the dream. Though I knew that old pods can contain good peas, I had put them aside for compost. I then went out to the garden and retrieved the pea pods, shucked them and cleaned them for cooking. There weren’t many, but what I had picked were good, and completed my harvest. The Lord spoke to me saying, “You planted those.” In 1 Cor 9:10 it is written that we plant and care for the soil “in the hope of sharing the harvest.” I had given up hope.

The day before taking out my vegetable garden I had been weeding my vegetable garden, and pulled up my carrot crop. These carrots had been planted too late in the season to grow big, but I had cooked the small carrots for dinner that night. However, some of the carrots were “too small for me to bother with” and so I discarded them on the compost pile. Later, when I went out to retrieve the pea pods, I also found these “too small” carrots and brought them in with my peas. The Lord spoke about the carrots, saying that “Even though things don’t grow as well in the cold, you should not discard them”.

I spent my quiet time listening to the Lord speak, not about peas and carrots, but about things I had sown in my life in hope of a harvest, only to finally let go of. I was at the edge of hope, and about to bury some talents, and other things that appeared passed their time of fruitfulness. My waiting had not brought the fruit I had hoped in, yet. So I was applying the lesson of “letting go” of these things, and had lost sight of their purpose in God’s kingdom.

The Lord brought me to read about Tamar, Judah’s daughter-in-law (Gen 38). She had been married to two of Judah’s sons, but neither had conceived a child in her, and each had died. Her role, or calling in life as a wife and a mother were unfulfilled. Her father-in-law Judah promised her a third son when the son grew old enough to marry. When the time had passed for the son to marry Tamar, she deceived Judah himself to lay with her, and she conceived a son. When Judah found out that he had fathered a child by Tamar he said “She is more righteous than I” (Gen 38:26) and did not condemn her. After reading this the Lord said simply “She knew who she was”. Tamar did not let discouragement deter her from her calling in life to continue the lineage of God’s family. It was important that Perez be born. Tamar named her son Perez, which means “breaking out.” She had overcome circumstances in her own life to finally bear a son, and she passed this heritage on to her son Perez. Though Perez’s twin put his hand out of the womb first, he withdrew it and Perez was born first.

What was in Tamar that prompted her to lay with the patriarch of God’s family? Tamar never gave up hope of bringing God’s seed to the earth. Hope. Circumstances defy it, and time wears it thin. But Tamar knew who she was; a daughter appointed to bear fruit in God’s kingdom. She did not lose hope of fulfilling her role, and overcame disappointment after disappointment to play her own part in the fulfillment of God’s will. And perhaps most importantly for those who are struggling with how we see ourselves, Tamar did not take on the esteem of others as being who she is. Though getting old, she saw herself as worthy of child-bearing.

Let us use the examples of those whose hope was in the Lord as our examples in this life. We should see ourselves as capable, and the seed which we plant as good. When that time of promise is upon us, let us not discard our hope no matter how long we have waited, nor the lack of visible signs of growth. And according to Isaiah 40:31, let the old who hope in the Lord mount up on the wings of eagles. Let them run and not grow weary, and walk and not grow faint. Be encouraged today to not toss off those meager fruits of your labors, but trust in the Lord that what He once gave to you personally He will keep alive for a full and glorious Harvest. Amen