Friday, January 08, 2010

Into the Vineyard

I forgot to tell you that on January 3rd, God talked to me again.

I just randomly opened up the Bible.

I do this, periodically, when I get this feeling that I should do so. The correspondence between doing so and receiving a relevant message (which usually is the continuation of some theme) to my life is UNREAL!!

So God spoke again, using the imagery of a growing vineyard, as He seems to always prefer to do with me.

But first, He reminded me of something. The Scripture said, "When you make a vow to the Lord your God, do not put off doing what you promised; the Lord will hold you to your vow, and it is a sin to not keep it. It is no sin to not make a vow to the Lord, but if you make one voluntarily, be sure that you keep it." Could He be referring to the importance of me having patience, as my Marian Promise continues for another 5 months?

And then He spoke about walking through someone else's vineyard. This is the first time God has ever mentioned that topic to me. In particular, He said that, when you walk through someone else's vineyard, you may enjoy the fruits -- but should not hoard them or try to take more than you are given. I could only understand this to mean that more patience is needed on my part as I appreciate the gifts that others bring to my life.

And then, finally, God spoke again about my metaphorical vineyard. Here again He spoke about the action of harvesting -- and the importance of leaving behind some of the fruits for the widow, foreigner, and orphan.

Notice that all 3 of these types of persons are those who ache for love. The orphan suffers with extreme lonesomeness; the widow shares in this isolation because she once had love but then lost it; and the foreigner aches for love because he is in a new land without his kindred, or--if one were to interpret the word "foreigner" differently--perhaps he has never experienced love and it is "foreign" to him.

And so, it is for these aching people that I must care about.

God concluded with a reminder about how He has rescued me already, and so this is the reason why I should joyfully leave behind blessings for others to enjoy.

My heart could only hope that God is telling me that when the waiting is over and I experience more fully the reaping of this harvest, I must view it as an abundance to be shared.

All this was said to me in Deuteronomy, Chapter 23, Verses 21 - 25 and in Chapter 24, Verses 19-22.