It has been a little over 10 years being in my house. The front lawn remained unattended to my dismay, filled with weeds and a cluster of thick baby trunks in the middle. Lying opposite, the back lawn was conquered by a whole array of weeds, contorting and protruding themselves out of the limited space they had, destroying the mural that never was.
As I looked around at the semak samun, I recalled several stories Jesus had told. As I cangkul-ed around, I recalled what Jesus said in Matthew 13:24-30
In this story, Jesus said the Kingdom of God is like a man who sowed seeds in his field, and an enemy came and sowed weeds. Jesus said the man commanded his servant NOT to cut down the weeds while they were growing, if not it would uproot the good seeds, too. He commanded the servant to wait until they were both fully grown, and then only pull them out.
I stared at my papaya tree, towering well over twice my height. A few years back, this piece of land was deemed barren by my mom (or by her poor planting skills :D)
Stepping back a bit about what Jesus said, to the parable of the seeds in Matthew 13:3-9. He had mentioned that there were four types of seeds;
One eaten by birds
One grew on stone
One grew among thorns
One grew on the ground
I managed to cangkul out the weeds and all rather easily, knowing that they grew among thorns. Some, growing by the side of my brick fence also came out very easily albeit their size because they grew on stone. They had no foundation.
Then I had a glance at the cluster of papaya trees, and noticed they werent fruiting despite years growing sluggishly. I recalled what Jesus said in Luke 13:6-9.
In this story Jesus mentions a man whose keeper asks him to have mercy on a plant, although it has not bore fruit yet, he begs his master to give it more time.
That's what Jesus/God is doing, isn't it?
2 Peter 3:9
The Lord is not slack concerning His promise,
as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward
us, not willing that any should perish but that all
should come to repentance.
But I had an urge to cangkul at least one of it off. Logic would say that with about 7 papaya trees crowding around in less than half-a-meter cube in infertile soil, you're not going to get much fruit in a long, long time.
So I proceeded. Tried smashing it a bit. Tried attacking it. Even tried bending it downwards, low enough for me to sit on, but it didn't give. Reminded me on what Jesus mentioned also in Luke 6:46-49.
But why do you call Me 'Lord, Lord,' and not do the things which I say?
Whoever comes to Me, and hears My sayings and does them,
I will show you whom he is like :
He is like a man building a house, who dug deep
and laid the foundation on the rock. And when the
flood arose, the stream beat vehemently against
that house, and could not shake it, for it was founded on the rock.
But he who heard and did nothing is like a man
who built a house on the earth without a foundation,
against which the stream beat vehemently; and
immediately it fell. And the ruin of that house was great.
Brought me back to point b) where Jesus was talking about seeds being planted in what kind of soil. Got me thinking that this is the kind of faith that we need to have in the end times, coz' Satan is going to come with his cangkul, and he's not going to have mercy. He's going to cut you, bend you, sit on you, butcher you, pull you and do everything. But your FOUNDATION is what's going to keep you holding strong no matter what.
Also take note that I picked on the smallest papaya trunk. Even that did not budge :)
Are we having our roots in Christ? Because all other 'rocks' can do is give you false protection, and when the day of testing comes, the ruin will be great. Proverbs 11:31 states, "If the righteous will be recompensed on the earth, how much more the ungodly and the sinner."
But God is faithful.
2 Timothy 2:13 - If we are faithless, He remains faithful; He cannot deny Himself.
