by Anne Fleming

Looking out my kitchen window, I see my neighbor’s cornfield, now harvested. In a way, I’m glad as I can now see the trees across the lot, but they, too, will soon be bare.

The bareness makes me think of the state of our world today. So many are living hopeless lives. I long for chances to tell them that there is hope. God is real, and he can make a difference; he is the difference.

God loves us tremendously. He gave us this beautiful earth, the sun, the moon, stars, food and trees that create beauty around us. He gives us our loved ones, our homes, everything we need for this life. And he gives us free access to heaven, through faith in his son. But people are not told that anymore. Our culture has forgotten, and so like that barren field, our nation’s souls have gone barren.

There is great hope! The barren field of our lives can come alive when we repent of our sins and turn to God in faith. Because God is a just judge, he must punish sins. He did that when Jesus took our sins upon himself on the cross.

When we repent our sins and turn to him, believing that he did in fact take our punishment, he credits us with his righteousness. We are given a new life! I know next spring there will be new growth in that field. The sprouts will come; new life will spring forth. Is there someone around you that needs to hear the hope of the good news of Jesus?

Mark 4:26-28 says, “And he said, the kingdom of God is as if a man should scatter seed on the ground, and should sleep by night and rise by day, and the seed should sprout and grow, he himself does not know how. For the earth yields crops by itself: first the blade, then the head, after that the full grain in the head. But when the grain ripens, immediately he puts in the sickle, because the harvest has come.”

Fleming is a member of Fellowship of Christian Farmers International in Enosburg Falls, Vt.