Ecclesiastes 3:1-2 (NET) “For everything there is an appointed time, and an appropriate time for every activity in earth: A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant and a time to uproot what was planted;”
Growing up in the village, harvesting season was usually one of the fun times in farming. I remember accompanying my grandmother and others to the farm to harvest yam. There is usually a small thatch hut in this farm, and after harvesting for a while, we get some fire going in the center of the farm where some yams are roasted and eaten with red oil mixed with freshly plucked pepper and salt. You can see how satisfied my grandparents are as the yams harvested keep swelling the barns close to the riverside. But all these would not be possible if we had done nothing during the planting season.
The natural things are usually a mirror of certain spiritual realities. The Bible instructs us in Ecclesiastes that there are seasons and appropriate times for every purpose on earth. Just as there is an appropriate time for planting certain crops in the year, likewise are there appropriate times for planting spiritual seeds on the earth.
For parenting, the formative years, 0 to 6 years, are the planting season and appropriate times for imbibing morals and inculcating home training in the child. For career, the appropriate time for getting an education is usually in one’s childhood and youthful years. For family life, the Bible talks about the wife of one’s youth, the youthful years are an appropriate season for starting a family.
However, when we begin to look at life with the eternal perspective, then we must come to the realization that our time on this earth represents our planting season. Jesus once told a parable of a man who planted wheat but while men slept, the enemy came to plant weed and he said to leave them to grow together until it was time for harvest. And by harvest time, he was referring to the time of his return and the subsequent judgment of the world.
Our time here on earth is when we plant and sow what we shall reap in and for all eternity. This time can be split into day and night; the youthful years and later years of one’s life. More productive planting is made in the day, so that when evening approaches, one can concentrate on consolidating the efforts of the morning, by nurturing, weeding, and watering the seed sown.
What are you doing with your planting season? When you do not take advantage of the planting season, you will reap sorrow and regrets.
Go into today determined to give yourself to fulfilling God’s plan for your life while it is day, for night comes when no man can plant. Harvest time beckons, get planting now.
—Ikechukwu Mpama
Bible in 1 Year: Numbers 13-16 (in today’s audio)
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