A few weeks ago I had the opportunity to get in touch with my non-existent farming skills at the Food Barn – an outreach program that teaches people to plant vegetables. We had to plant peas. I took the tiny pea and pressed it into the soft soil, as instructed. It just didn’t seem right. The poor pea vanished without a trace. What if it got stepped on? How would it know which way was up? Surely it would be happier in the sun? We returned this week and saw small plants poking out of the ground where we had buried the peas. Amazing.
Life is not always as we plan. And what seems illogical to us, is what God knows will bring us growth. James puts it like this.
“Consider it a sheer gift, friends, when tests and challenges come at you from all sides. You know that under pressure, your faith-life is forced into the open and shows its true colors. So don’t try to get out of anything prematurely. Let it do its work so you become mature and well-developed, not deficient in any way.” (James 1:2-4)
Whatever your trials, however dark the place you find yourself, however inconceivable the situation, know that God is working with you to bring about growth and life toward His light.
