A Bonfire of Weeds?

   One of the reasons that it takes me so long to write a blog is that, while reflecting on the Scripture passage of the day, my mind takes me on so many different rabbit trails. Consider today:

   The passage is from Matthew 13: 24-30, and is the parable of the farmer's field planted with wheat, but also sown by "the enemy" with weeds, thistles or tares, according to the translation used. Where do I go with all of that?

   Well, first of all, I think about the Thanksgiving Hymn or Come You Thankful People Come, so I looked up the lyrics to the hymn and found this in the second verse: "wheat and tares together sown". Look at the whole score here:

   http://www.hymnsite.com/lyrics/umh694.sht

   That got me to thinking about a time, growing up, when my Dad decided to plant a small field of corn and my job was to weed out the Johnson grass from among the corn plants. The only trouble was that when each first sprouted and grew, they looked the same, at least to the untrained eye of a kid. So, I probably weeded an equal number of good and bad plants.

   How about the analogy of my life as the field in which good and bad things grow up together? Perhaps the plants may look similar, and maybe all look good, but there will come a day when the wheat will be separated from the tares, and then the true good works will be known. In the hymn cited above that will be when God "gives His angels charge at last".

   As I follow that trail, I think about the verse in I Corinthians 3:13-15:

    And the fire  will test what kind of work each has done.  If what someone has built survives, he will receive a reward. If someone’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss.  He himself will be saved, but only as through fire.

   How much of my life will be filled with stuff that looks good but is only wood, hay and stubble, or tares and thistles? When that is burned away, what will be left?

   The field may look good, but the smoke from the burning could be intense.