Try Growing Watermelons From Okra!

Mike Hosey, An Elder

Paul (Galatians 6:7-9) teaches us a profound truth about life using a simple agricultural illustration.  He teaches us that whatever we plant, we will harvest.

If you plant corn in the ground, you are not going to get watermelons.  And if you plant watermelon seeds in the ground, you are not going to get okra.  Whatever you plant in the ground is what you are going to get.  And you usually get a greater volume of what you placed in the ground than what you actually planted.  So if you plant one okra seed in the ground, you are going to get many okra pods that are full of many, many seeds. And the greater care you take of the plant that sprouts, and the more you keep the weeds away, and the more you keep it fertilized, and the more you keep it watered, the more okra you are going to get.

Der Sommer, Abel Grimmer, 1607

This rule applies to every domain of life. If you plant seeds of discontent, then the more discontent you are going to get.  If you nurse that discontent, it will grow to monstrous proportions.  If you plant dissension, then it is a good bit of dissension that you are going to get. Have you ever noticed how nothing ever satisfies a negative person? That’s because his field is planted with row upon row of negative seeds, and so everywhere he looks are the branches and foliage of negative plants. Because it is a weed to the good seeds that God plants, such dissension chokes out all the light and love in a person’s life.  The reverse is true as well.  If the negative person plants seeds of love among his rows, and then begins to water them, and care for them, then they will grow and become weeds to the dissension! It’s really a matter of what you plant and care for. If you truly want love and light growing in your field, then plant those things.

Paul’s teaching was within the context of economic and spiritual generosity to the advancement and management of God’s kingdom and purposes on earth.  So what Paul was teaching (among other things) was that if you sow generously into God’s kingdom, then you will reap God’s generosity.

This is a very testable biblical truth. Consider what and where you’ve sown, and see what and where you are reaping.