Tuesday 08 May 2012

Background

The sowing process was labour intensive, with the seed held in abag or upturned apron at the waist of the sower who dipped in ahand and scattered the seed onto the prepared soil.

But here is a different reading of today's story. Feel the rhythmof the words and sense the wonder of the growing in the darkness,the working with nature.

Dip and throw, dip and throw - just like my father did and hisfather before him.
Dip and throw, dip and throw - steady pace by steady pace.
Dip and throw, dip and throw - and the ground is seeded, the croplaid.

Row by row and line by line, dip and throw, dip and throw.
A rhythm and timing all its own.
Dip and throw. Dip and throw.
Then leave it.
For after the first work the growing is a matter for God.
It is God who sends the rain and the sunshine.

Dip and throw.
There are those who would say it's a wasteful way - dip and throw- but it was good enough for my ancestors and it's good enough forme.
Dip and throw.
Yes, some seed misses and hits the pathway, gets trampled andlost.
Some seed is carried by the birds and does nothing - but who am Ito starve God's creatures.
Then there's the seed that falls in the hedgerow and chokes withthe weeds there.
Dip and throw - dip and throw. Some is always lost but that's theway of all things.

Dip and throw, dip and throw.
Some seed hits the ploughed soil and roots deeply.
It grows straight and tall and ripens with the sunshine. Then, indue course, a harvest.

Dip and throw, dip and throw. Action and reaction.
Lost and found. Dying and growing.

Dip and throw, dip and throw. A small world, all in onespace.
A refection of the wider world where the rhythms of life stilloffer us chance to grow or to be carried away, to choke or betrampled into the ground.

Dip and throw, dip and throw.
God calls us to be rooted and to grow: to form a harvest for thefuture that more seed may be made, the hungry fed and all find afield where they can be home.

Dip and throw, dip and throw.
Our task is to scatter the seed - not to worry about the place itchooses to grow or the harvest that will come about.

Just dip and throw, dip and throw.
As we grow, seed is scattered through our living and others arechallenged to root and grow too.

Dip and throw, dip and throw. Ancient rhythms of life.
The heartbeat of our lives even today.
A continuity from the past for what the future may hold:
a continuity of God's providence and provision.

To Ponder

• What sort of soil is your life for the word and life of God toenter and to make growth?
   
• What rhythms of life dictate your pace or activity?