Last Friday, I randomly felt the need to take a drive. It was well before the typical lunch hunger pains start to creep up and sometime past the dew point, when the sun shines just right and the day really begins. I’m not sure what made me want to or even where I would go, but I just knew I needed it. So, I closed my laptop, slipped on my newly worn in ‘field boots’ that I keep tucked away under my desk, and grabbed my camera on the way out the door.
I put my car in drive and hit the gas, squinting past dusty road signs and the occasional vehicle. Two left turns and a long stretch of dirt road brought me to the Square Mile farm, a brand new addition to Southern Valley, about to experience its very first spring harvest.
I stopped for a second to look out at all the fields, recently just seas of shiny black plastic, that were now sporting pops of green with a hint of yellow under the warm sunshine and cerulean sky. It seemed like nothing bad was going on in the world. No pandemic. No pain. Life as normal. Just another spring beginning, the birth of a new season.
I put my car in park somewhere between the yellow squash and pole-grown cukes, grabbed my camera, and started exploring. I weaved my way through rows of trellis and netting, marveling at the beautiful new cucumber plants that, although now just barely reach the net, still promise to reach to the top in just a few weeks and bear fruit for the months to come. “I am the vine; you are the branches,” popped in my head, a verse from John Chapter 15. “Whoever abides in Me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.”
I dropped my camera to the side and stopped for a second to let that verse sink in. If we abide in Him, we will bear much fruit. Here we are, right on the cusp of spring season, hoping and praying that our plants will literally bear fruit. If we are apart from God, lost in sin and the ways of the world, there will be no fruit because we are not in Him. Is God trying to tell us that we need a rebirth, in Him, in order to bear fruit? The Word of God says in 2 Chronicles, Chapter 7 verse 14: “If my people… pray and turn from their wicked ways… I will forgive their sins and heal their land.” In today’s unprecedented times, our land needs healing. We need to turn from our wicked ways, pray, and abide in Him in order to bear fruit.
Every Georgia spring season for us here at Southern Valley is a rebirth in some ways. The spring season, just like a new birth, brings new challenges, new failures, new fears, and new disappointments, but with that comes new answers to those challenges, new victories in the face of failure, new hope to combat those fears, and new satisfaction in overcoming that disappointment. “Whoever abides in Me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing.” Let’s let this spring be a new beginning and a rebirth, not only for the fruits and vegetables grown by our vital industry, but also a rebirth for our country and beyond.