Don’t Count Your Chickens

A person growing a garden learns quickly that it isn’t wise to count one’s horticultural chickens before they are hatched.

Tiny plants poking their heads above the surface of the ground promise a harvest, but that promise —for a variety of reasons— is not always kept.

A flowering plant may suggest prolific production, but that suggestion doesn’t always become a reality. Soil, weather, carelessness, bugs, deer, or sometimes the inexplicable can conspire to cause a flowering plant to be all flower, no fruit.

A mass of flowers can convince a gardener that a harvest is guaranteed, but a mass of flowers guarantees only a mass of flowers.

While a thriving plant usually develops into a productive plant, such is not always the case. This is yet another area where gardening illustrates evangelism. Many visitors to church promise to return —never to be seen again.

The person who begins a series of Bible studies and attends church enthusiastically may appear to be a baptism in the making, but disappointment is sometimes the result. A meaningful conversation, a responsive neighbor or friend, or an invitation to a church event can give the impression that the journey to discipleship is beginning for the person concerned. But it does not always work out that way.

It is imperative that we remember when sharing our faith with others, the agent of transformation is never us but is always the Holy Spirit.

The uncertainty of outcomes suggests we must continue to pray for those with whom we share the gospel and do all we can to lead a soul to surrender to Jesus. But Paul made it clear, when he wrote to the Corinthian church, that ours is to work, to pray, to share, to invite, to let our light shine.

But it is God who wins a heart.

We cannot see the end from the beginning, so we share our faith as intelligently and prayerfully as we are able and trust God with the results.