Growth Unseen. And so we wait.

...we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. 

For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.

2 Corinthians 4:17-18

There are few things so satisfying as a messy room turned clean. I often enjoy the finished product so much I light a candle to celebrate. When things look, smell, and feel clean, I feel accomplished. My work here is done.

How often does that happen in my job as a mother? How often do I see a heart messy, or emotions tangled? Often. But do I get to be the one to clean, untangle, perfect, and celebrate? Rarely.

Yet those unseen things are important, more important than the earthly part of my job. And as I do them in God's strength, He will surely bless the sowing of His Word. 

I just wish I could see it sometime, don't you?
But we can imagine it.  


Consider this:

When Jesus sat in the boat teaching, the power of what he spoke was invisible. Who could see that the mountains of ignorance were removed, that the flinty hearts were made like butter by contrition, that the new, immortal spiritual life of faith was coming into existence, that the frightful, crushing guilt and sin were blown away as far as the east is from the west? Spiritual things are invisible, nobody’s eyes see that they are wrought.  Therefore even preachers often think that their work is in vain. And how could Peter and the apostles face Judaism and paganism with absolute assurance of victory when they had only the Word? Here was the visible answer: the nets full of fish caught at Jesus’ word, and at that word alone.  (Lenski commentary on Luke, p.281)

You may see nothing but rotting vegetables, but be assured that God is growing fruit through His Word as you share it with others.

Just wait and see.

Isaiah 55:10-11

 “For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven

    and do not return there but water the earth,

making it bring forth and sprout,

    giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater,

 so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth;

    it shall not return to me empty,

but it shall accomplish that which I purpose,

    and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.