Faith & Fields

One of the things about doing life with Jesus is that it has ups and downs. Just like any relationship with a friend, being in relationship with God is a journey. Some seasons are easier than others. And some seasons you can’t help but wonder if he still cares about you.

I’m in one of those wondering seasons. Wondering what he’s doing. Wondering why we’re not as talkative with each other as in times past. Wondering why I feel so stagnant despite so much hard-working. Wondering why he doesn’t seem to be showing up, active in my life the way he used to be.

About a month ago, my husband and I were driving on a highway in the county when I finally felt brave enough to admit this out loud. The road ahead was long, the sky was lightly sprinkled with glowing white clouds, and the fields around us looked brown and empty.

“I feel like that field,” I pointed, “All that work and there’s nothing there. I show up, do the work, cultivate things… and it’s just dead.”

The thin rows of brown flashed by us in a steady pattern. All the effort to rake careful lines into dirt. Driving past a field that looked utterly empty to me, my tired eyes welled with tears. And then my husband (who has lived among fields all his life) turned to me and said:

“But the field is growing… Look.”

It was hard to see through my tears— and nearly impossible to recognize unless you knew what to look for—but there was indeed a tiny, thin green haze overtopping the field. Thousands of miniscule tendrils of growth, pushing down through soil and up toward sky, struggling their way through a crop’s babyhood. Tender and young, but alive.

“It’s hard to see right now, but in a few months those corn stalks will be taller than you are.”

It’s been one month. And already, the corn stalks are waist-high, their bright leaves tousled by the breeze, whispering a hopeful reminder of how quickly things can change. Who knew so much spiritual encouragement could be derived from a barely-sprouting field, from driving up and down over the hills and thinking about how similar it all is to life with Jesus.