SEEDS, PLANTS and SOULS

19 PICKING

Many of the parables that we have looked at
 refer to the eventual harvesting
or reaping of seeds or fruits by people.
The meaning is usually that
we only get as good as we give.
Good begets good - evil begets evil.

The Garden of Eden used the act of picking fruits
to symbolise the entry of evil into the world.
Eve should have left the forbidden fruit
to drop and rot by itself!
In the plant world,
fruits and their seeds are not usually plucked artificially,
but are dispersed by all sorts of natural agents
 - wind, water, gravity, birds, insects, or animals.
The purpose of such dispersal
is to allow the seeds
to get a chance to germinate somewhere favourable,
and grow into new plants.

Fruits and seeds demonstrate
a whole range of ingenious devices
to exploit these natural agents.
Some are so light,
that a gentle breeze can detach them
and send them sailing for miles.
Others have high-tech hooks
which catch onto animal's fur after the slightest touch.
Some work like catapults
to launch the seeds through the air.
And as we know,
a whole range exploit animals' need for food
by being deliciously edible,
so that the seeds are dispersed one way or another
after a meal is over.

Afforestation programmes would be much easier
if tree seeds weren't so difficult to collect.
The various agents that disperse tree fruits
often work faster than foresters can collect the fruit,
and the sheer size of trees
- their height and span -
make the fruits almost inaccessible.

I have spent many an enjoyable hour
- as have other colleagues -
trying to develop better ways of collecting tree seeds.
Many trees have to be climbed to get near the fruits,
and so techniques need to be devised
that are safe without being laborious.

Once aloft,
special tools are needed
to reach and pick the different types of fruits.
Such tools provide a challenge for design
- they must be strong and lightweight,
especially when at the end of a fifteen foot pole,
and they must harvest in such a way
that does not damage the tree and future fruit crops.

Once picked,
further special techniques may be needed
to ensure the fruits do not plummet to the ground
and bounce away down the hillside,
to be irretrievably lost!

In the gospels of Matthew and Luke,
there is a passage
where Jesus uses the illustration of harvesting
in a different way to most of the other parables
we have already read.
He likens all people to a potential crop of believers.
This crop can only believe,
bear fruit and be harvested into eternal life
using people who are already believers
as instruments.

Jesus went through all the towns and villages,
teaching in their synagogues,
preaching the good news of the kingdom
and healing every disease and sickness.
When he saw the crowds,
he had compassion on them,
because they were harassed and helpless,
like sheep without a shepherd.
Then he said to his disciples,
"The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few.
Ask the Lord of the harvest,
therefore,
to a send out workers into his harvest field"
(Matthew 9:35-38)

In John's gospel,
this idea is repeated and expanded,
but in a different situation.
Jesus is talking to his disciples,
after he had met a Samaritan woman at a well

"My food," said Jesus,
"is to do the will of him who sent me
and to finish his work.
Do you not say,
`Four months more and then the harvest'?
I tell you,
open your eyes and look at the fields!
They are ripe for harvest.
Even now the reaper draws his wages,
even now he harvests the crop for eternal life,
so that the sower and reaper may be glad together.
Thus the saying `One sows and another reaps' is true.
I sent you to reap what you have not worked for.
Others have done the hard work,
and you have reaped the benefits of their labour"
(John 4:34-38)

By fields, it seems
that Jesus was referring to a group of Samaritan villagers
who were coming at that moment
to find out more about him.
They had been told by the woman
that Jesus could be the Messiah.

Jesus emphasises that,
unlike natural harvests,
people could be ready to believe
and eventually harvest at any time,
and that included now!
And he also reminds the disciples (and us)
 that although they (and we)
 may harvest,
others have been busy sowing the seeds of belief
and nurturing that belief into fruit.
Paul had to remind his readers of this
when talking of his co-worker Apollos.

The variety of ways of harvesting tree fruits,
or any other crop,
can remind us
that there are all sorts of ways
of gathering people back to God.
What is suitable for one particular tree (or person)
 may be quite unsuitable for another.
And it is a team effort
- some people working
with their feet firmly on the ground,
while others climb to perilously great heights!

I have to admit that at the time of writing,
I still suffer from vertigo!

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