From a handful to a bundle!

The farmers follow a ritual while sowing and harvesting. They offer a handful to the birds before sowing and at harvesting. It is their way of acknowledging the gift they receive from the land. 

Jesus of Nazareth told a parable of a landowner going to sleep after sowing good seed in his field during which time an enemy came and sowed tares in the field. The wheat and the tares grew together till the harvest time when the landowner gathered the tares first and separated them from the grains. He later gathered the grains to the barn(Mat 13:24-30).

The rationale of the landowner in allowing the tares to grow with the wheat till the harvest time was that the wheat would be damaged while plucking out the tares(v29). His thought was, 'Allow both to grow together until the harvest..'(v30).

I often wondered at this rational! Judas was in one sense like the tares in the company of disciples Jesus chose. Judas was in the habit of pilfering from the money bag (John 12:6). 

I have struggled with this rational a lot in the recent years. How do you relate to everyone at work place! It is a distressing experience when those whom one chooses to be collaborators become otherwise. The lesson from this Biblical rationale is to allow the discomfort of disruptions and divisions at work place, as long as it is possible. 

The woman in the pictures above gathered just handful each time and made a bundle out of what she gathered. 

She was harvesting what the land provided. There would be weeds in plenty in each handful she gathered. But she did not seem to bother about them at all. At the time of separating the grain the weeds would be left behind automatically. The focus during the sowing, harvesting and gathering is on the grain. 

Yet a lot of time is often spent on worrying and attempting to correct the disruptions caused by some who are no more collaborators in the mission in which they were  actively involved earlier.  

When such difficult experiences take place at work place, it is intensely disturbing. What is consoling in such situations is the message of the parable quoted above. Let the focus be on the grain and not on the tares. 

Jesus of Nazareth went about doing good. 

How to keep that as the focus even when there are intimidations and confrontational attitude!

This to me has been the struggle at my work place!

Let me come back to the woman in the field who was harvesting. She was alone and had a task cut out for her for a day or more! She endured the heat of the day. She did appear to be an older person. She looked to be overweight. Was she struggling a bit! In spite of these odds, she finished the harvesting all by herself. I saw her the next day completing the harvest.  That seemed her purpose. She was harvesting for her family. When we come across difficulties at work place, it is important to remember that we are called to endure it for a larger cause. 

All difficulties are for our formative experience. 

Learning to grow in every situation is an opportunity!

M.C.Mathew(text and photo)