You Are God's Field

You Are God’s Field.  Were it not for the waves of pollen, May might be the crown of the whole year. Simply because of May’s allergies, October probably moves up to top billing, even though October has allergens of its own. The evenings in May are cool. The days are warm. The flowers are out. The days of sunblock are still ahead.

I dug up a live oak sapling in the uncultivated wild near my house. Its predecessor was impressive, wide, and verdant but the sapling is struggling where I transplanted it. It probably won’t endure many more days. Perhaps I have watered it too much, or not enough. Perhaps it has too much sun, or too little. Perhaps the soil at the house is too sandy, too nitrogen deficient, too acidic. Perhaps it has separation anxiety from its mother and sibling group. I don’t know. Then again, why would I know? It wasn’t from my field. Truth be told, my field didn’t begin with me. It is not my possession; I am merely leasing it from the generation to come. No matter what the records show down at the courthouse, all our fields are merely entrusted to us for a little while. We are stewards. The Lord is the owner. “The earth is the Lord’s, and the fullness thereof, the world and those who dwell therein” (Psa. 24:1).

Every acorn, every worm in every acorn, every deer that feeds on every acorn in every field—it is all the Lord’s. Even we who harvest the deer that eat the acorns that grow in the field are the Lord’s possessions. Though we prefer to think of ourselves as autonomous and self-reliant, we are completely dependent upon our host-owner-God.

God, among his many titles, takes the title Farmer, too! He is the Worker for those who wait upon him, the Cultivator of the garden, the Shepherd of the flock, the Vinedresser of the true vine, the Sower of good seed, and the Rancher of the cattle on a thousand hills. It is, therefore, not a stretch to say that God gets his hands dirty. He seems to like it! Yet, the crop that he is primarily growing is us. “You are God’s field” (1 Cor. 3:9b).

If you are one of the redeemed, then God transplanted you from the wild into his own very garden. He is growing you not as a commodity, but as a worshiper, companion, and friend. “You are God’s field” but you are not the end of the line. God is looking ahead to the spiritual generations that he will make through you. Disciples making disciples, making disciples, making disciples. “You are God’s field” and God’s “fellow workers” (1 Cor. 3:9a). He is simultaneously growing us and including us in his work to cause others to grow. Although it is exclusively his work, his power, and his good pleasure to “give the growth” (1 Cor. 3:7), he nevertheless grants us an invitation to get our hands dirty alongside him, in his field, during that day that he has created. So, whether it is May or October, or even February or August, “This is the day that the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad in it!” (Psa. 118:24).