No Harvest Without Seeds

I was walking along the coastline on the north Wales flood defences when I saw a giant, bright red warning sign.  I decided to take a photo of it.
The all caps white lettering read first in Welsh and then the English translation, “Parents keep your children off rocks”.

A Scottish lady in her 70’s called Edith came up behind me and asked, “what are you doing?” 

“I’m taking a photo to use in my sermon,” I said.

There are several of these signs along this rocky area.

She went on to say that she sees dozens of kids each day playing in these rocks during the summer. “Their parents are near by but seldom warn their children”, she said.

“Isn’t that just like life”, I said as I was now aware this was a God meeting.

I went on, “we hear people say, ‘our kids have to make their own way through life and if they get injured then it’s there own fault’. Surely it’s our responsibility to care for and protect our kids as much as we can, whilst being a good example.”

Out of the blue she said, “my son was one of those happy clappy Christians as a child he had gone to Boys’ Brigade and as a teen became very involved in the local church.”

“I always moaned and made fun of him and the church songs he played. He was always at church”, she said. “I was always moaning at him. Then something happened. He started to mix with the wrong people, doing all the wrong things”

She said she was too ashamed to tell me what he had done. I quickly told her I didn’t need to know…

Here we had a broken-hearted woman who’s son was on a road to destruction..

“I don’t know what happed to him, but now I wish I had encouraged him in his God stuff”, she said. “I would even go with him. Now he’s lost and it’s hopeless.”

“I believe God is the God of Hope”, I told her.

I asked if I could read some scriptures to her and pray for her son (Arden).

Luke 19:10
For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.

Psalms 139:7-16
Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence?
If I go up to the heavens, you are there;
If I make my bed in the depths, you are there.
If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea,
Even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast.

If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me and the light become night around me,”
Even the darkness will not be dark to you;
The night will shine like the day, for darkness is as light to you.
For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
Your works are wonderful, I know that full well.
My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place,
When I was woven together in the depths of the earth.
Your eyes saw my unformed body;
All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.

After we prayed she said to me, “there is nowhere for him to hide. I will trust God.” She said she was off to ring her sister who was also a christian and was due to visit that weekend.

She wanted her sister to know of our meeting together, and tell her she wants to know more about this Jesus, who brings hope to the hopeless.

We said goodbye.

Thank you Jesus for this opportunity

My friends this was an opportunity to tend the soil (heart) and sow some seed. I believe it is for another to reap…maybe her sister.

There can be no harvest without seeds being sown.