Sow, Reap, Break and Seek This Advent

On these darker than usual days we fuel ourselves with hot tea at dinner time paired with Thanksgiving leftovers all summoned together in a pan, ready for the scooping onto glass plates.  

We skip more often on the paper to use real dishes in the cooler months when there’s no pull away from the sink to finish up mowing or jump in for one last swim before bed. The darkness stores us away, inside by 5 O’clock, so we welcome the little to-do’s keeping our hands busy.  

I sit and listen to girls rearranging their bedroom above me - the scuff of a bed frame on the old barn-board floors, the hum-whistle of the vacuum over the rug, and the silly banter between sisters - all a peaceful echo to my thoughts.

This verse has swirled through my mind and swelled my heart this week - it’s a challenge to me that I had almost decided to save for the new year as it seemed so fitting for a fresh start.  But the truth is, it’s perfect for right now as we come into another Advent season, another retelling of Christ coming into our world.  ​

“Sow for yourselves righteousness, reap the fruit of unfailing love, and break up your unplowed ground; for it is time to seek the Lord until He comes.”  Hosea 10:12

Sow. Reap. Break. Seek.  This is how we should be found celebrating Advent.  This is how we should be waiting until He comes. 

Sowing into our hearts righteous days of deep, joyous living.  Letting the sound of laughter echo through halls and be heard behind walls, living a life of volume that extends to the corners of our space and beyond. A righteous design to the humdrum of daily life, an etching of Christ around all our ways. 

To reap the unwavering response of love from above. Jesus’ arrival, the fruit of The Father - being utmost in determination, single minded in His love, unchanging in pursuit, unpersuaded and resolute.  Gather it into your heart - it was sent for YOU.  

Break open the parts of your life that you’ve held cupped in your fearful hands as you falsely imagine His forgetfulness of you.  Push back on the darkness closing in, the phony whisper in the wind, and pray with fingers wrapped around plow handles rather than wringing out nerves you CAN’T handle. 

For it is time to seek the Lord until he comes…

Can we prepare our hearts for this very thing?  

Be okay with becoming His little lamb, rest in His faithful hands, He will take care of you.