For You to Be and Him to Do

“[The farmer] sleeps and rises night and day, and the seed sprouts and grows; he knows not how. The earth produces by itself.” Mark 4:27-28a ESV1

Read Mark 4:26-29

I felt so lazy as I sat in the house while copious amounts of snow fell from the sky and a ferocious wind swirled it about. My husband was on a business trip. He asked me not to worry about shoveling the snow; he would take care of the snow removal when he came home later that evening. At first, I was satisfied with the arrangement, but the weather continued to worsen and, because of the storm, my husband’s flight was delayed. Now, no longer would he be getting home in the evening; he wouldn’t arrive until almost midnight. I felt I had to do something to help.

I shoveled the sidewalk and in front of the garage. It was heavy, wet snow, but I slowly conquered a ginormous drift and felt empowered to tackle more. I started up the driveway, but the drifts got taller, and as I began to tire, the snow seemed heavier. But I was determined; I was going to at least clear a place at the entrance of the driveway for my husband to park his vehicle and shovel a path for him to get into the house. It took me almost two hours, but I accomplished that which I set out to do. By that time, though the wind threatened to destroy my work, the snow had almost come to an end. Exhausted but satisfied, I returned to the house with a smile on my face as I imagined how proud my husband would be of me.

Continue reading