THE COTTON FARMER

“Consider how the lilies grow.” (Luke 12:27)

Not just the lilies, but a few other flowering things. Like cotton. Seeing a cotton field ready for picking gives new meaning to the phrase “white unto harvest.” But a lot of carefully planned work goes into the crop before it reaches that stage-it’s true for us as spiritual “plants” as well.

Just at the time-the exact time-the cotton plant starts to bear fruit, the farmer withholds water. Less water at the critical stage in development makes for a fuller cotton flower. This is how the farmer induces the plant to produce more cotton. At harvest time, he sprays the cotton plant with salt water, which dries up the leaves and makes them fall off. Now the cotton is much easier to pick. We would be prone to leave the green part of the plant. But the farmer knows the plant has to give up its beauty to serve its function.

Dry seasons are no mistake. For consider how you grow. You sometimes bear more fruit (like patience or long-suffering) for having endured a dry season. If you’re going through a dry time, keep in mind that God is inducing you to “raise a harvest of righteousness,” (James 3:18). The stresses of life are being used for His good purpose. Let that thought release you from worrying. And as far as those dried up leaves that fall off, sometimes, we, too, must give up something that is treasured to serve the purpose God intends for us.

Joni Eareckson Tada.

Taken from More Precious Than Silver, Copyright 1998 by Joni Eareckson Tada.