I am a Rich Woman (Cooperating with God 1)
I am a rich woman!
One of my dreams is to have a yard that produces fruit all year ‘round. (Living in central Arizona, that’s definitely a possibility.)
One of my goals is to have one homegrown fruit and one vegetable on the table every day.
Why?
It is because I have been invited to cooperate with God in His provision for my family!
(My husband does this by going to a job where someone signs a paycheck. I have never been a paycheck gal. The last time I earned regular wages was before we were married, and we are coming up on 45 years!)
I cooperate with God’s provision in a number of ways.
One of my favorites is participating with Him in the mystery that He established ‘way back in the beginning…the third day (however you count those days), when He told the land He had just separated from the water to produce grass, herbs and trees that reproduced themselves. He declared it good, in all the ways it could be good. Just a bit later, God instructs Man to care for the plants, to eat from them, and to enjoy them. Later, He calls the harvests people will reap “income,” and lets them know that how they treat the land affects provision for those who have none of their own.
There is something lovely and mysterious about putting a hard little tan clinker into damp earth and waiting for the “magic” to happen, praying over each row of seeds, each tiny mystery of life-waiting-to-die so that something soft, green and wonderful can emerge and begin the process of making more seeds, with me and my family being fed along the way.
I cannot make life come from the ground. I cannot guarantee that what I put in will produce. That’s God’s job. But I can cooperate with Him: If I don’t put the seeds of what I desire to eat in the ground, I will only get what grows on its own…usually Bermuda grass… He does make the grass to grow.
If I put them in and fail to water them, I will only get what our infrequent desert rains will allow…things we are not used to eating… mallow and cactus are edible. He does cause the earth to put forth food.
If I put them in and water them, but put poisoned manure on the ground (accidentally, you understand), I will be disappointed and hungry, but more careful next time… He does not rescue me from stupidity, but does provide opportunity to learn!
So, when I bring in the pile of pomegranates, lemons and figs, along with the Swiss-chard-that-refuses-to-die, I feel like a rich, successful woman, because my Divine Business Partner is a very good at what He does!
This is why I continue
Following Jesus every day in the everyday,
Christi
P.S. More to come on cooperating with God.
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