Today we plant our two small raised beds between cloud bursts. Usually I have plants in by now, but the cool and rainy spring delayed the season. We line up our plants and get started.
This year’s “garden” will be a breeze compared to those in years past. One year, in a moment of inexplicable insanity, we planted our entire fenced in area… about 340 square feet. Compared to the 1-acre garden my grandpa used to plant, it was relatively small. Compared to the average family garden today, it’s pretty big.
By the end of that year I had picked, packed and pickled gallons of beans, pickles and peppers. I had chopped, blanched and frozen ample corn, beans, zucchini and broccoli. There were tomatoes in the freezer, and in jars, and on the window sill, and in salsa. And I’d given away enough vegetables to feed a small country. Even the stuff that was buggy, or spoiled, or frost-nipped didn’t go to waste. We had chickens. Chickens will eat almost anything.
I think I suffered burn out! God provided three years’ worth of harvest last year, so I asked Pete if we could declare a year of Jubilee. He agreed. That was three years ago.
God remembers, though we sometimes forget, we do need rest from time to time. From creation, the Father has provided sunlight for a good day’s work. After a good day’s work (or night’s work, for those who work second or third shift) it’s good to rest.
God also set aside the Sabbath so we could rest, and rest in Him, one day each week. “Remember the sabbath day to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh is a sabbath of the Lord your God; in it you shall not do any work…” (Exodus 20:8-10a)
Then God ordained seasons of planting and harvest so field work would not be endless. And every 49 years, provision was made for His people, even the soil itself, to rest from toil. In the year of Jubilee the fields were left fallow. Better yet, debts were forgiven, slaves were freed and ancestral lands were returned to their rightful owners. No wonder it was also known as the year of liberty!
Our teeny tiny garden is planted in record time. I walk away with a jubilant bounce in my step, thinking of the other projects I’ll have time to work on because the garden will not be all-consuming. These three years of jubilee (yes, I know that’s a couple more than God set aside), of rest and liberty from hard labor, will renew my body… but not forever. Next year all our canned goods will be used up and it will be time to take on the big garden again.
God gives us brief bodily reprieves here on earth – and they’re good! The eternal rest and liberty our souls enjoy in Christ are oh-so-much better. Once we decide to follow Christ, we live a life of jubilee… freed from sin’s tyranny and welcomed to rest in Him. “Thus says the Lord, ‘Stand by the ways and see and ask for the ancient paths, where the good way is, and walk in it; and you will find rest for your souls.” (Jeremiah 6:16)
