The Fruit of Hope: Discovering Hope in the Fruits of the SpiritSample

Since we’re talking about the fruit of the Spirit, and since today’s fruit is patience, it seems only right that we should talk about patience in the context of seeds. Or, more plainly, in the context of sowing and reaping.

From the very beginning of agriculture, from the early farmers to the backyard gardeners of today, the act of planting a seed has had two emotions attached to it: hope and patience. The planter hopes for a bountiful harvest from the plant that results, but they also know this hoped-for harvest will only come through patience.

Hope sustains the patience that sowing requires.

When we sow, we sow in hope. Nobody plants a garden just because; you don’t put those seeds in the ground thinking nothing will happen. You have hope that they will sprout and grow and produce something delicious to eat (or, in the case of flowers, something beautiful to look at).

And you know that, if you’re patient, then whatever you’ve put in the ground will come up. You can’t harvest too early—you have to wait for the appropriate time or your harvest won’t be any good. You can’t give up; you have to be patient.

One chapter after we find the fruit of the Spirit, we read a little about sowing, reaping, and the patience they require. “If you sow to your own flesh, you will reap corruption from the flesh, but if you sow to the Spirit, you will reap eternal life from the Spirit. So let us not grow weary in doing what is right, for we will reap at harvest time, if we do not give up.” (Galatians 6:8-9, NRSV)

There’s more to sowing and reaping than just seeds and fruit. But even in this context, Paul encourages us to use patience. “Don’t give up,” he writes. We know the harvest will come if we have patience and keep doing what is right.

And we can only have that amount of patience when we hope.