Potatoes and Jesus.

We like Potatoes, my people and me.

Over study/reading days in the fall, we went to OH and visited a potatoe farm. If you've ever farmed potatoes, you'll understand what I'm about to write. If not, bear with me.

The Church is like potatoes.

Potato farming is hard work. They have a long growing season and a long harvest. And when you finally get them out of the ground, none of them are the same. Some of them are funny shaped, some are huge, some are so small they barely seem worth keeping. None of them are flawless, they have those roots and knobs and nasty-looking things growing out of them. They come out dirty and leave your hands starchy for days following.

The truth about potatoes is that all of them are necessary. A farmer doesn't dig up a potato he doesn't want to use. He won't go through the work of harvesting it if he doesn't have a plan for it. He grows each one with a vision of the mashed potatoes, cheesy-potatoes, or potato soup his wife will make with them.

The Church is like potatoes.

We have a long growing season and a long harvest. When we all finally come to the same Christ, we don't become the same. Some of us are funny shaped, with quirky personalities and a strange sense of humor (I knew there was a place for me!). I wanted to say here that some of us are huge and some are so small they barely can be seen...but I won't. That would just be rude. Instead, I'll say that some of us are the "big shots", the ones who seem really really useful to the King. These are the pastors, the preachers, the teachers, the directors. The rest of us feel barely worth keeping around. How could we be useful?

The truth about potatoes is the truth about us, too. Sometimes, we act like He saved us unintentionally. But He wants to use all of us, each one; dirty, starchy, big, little. None of us are flawless, we've got knobs that become the devil's foothold, roots that draw us back to sin, and nasty-looking scars from our old way of living. But our Jesus didn't redeem us for nothing. He didn't go through harvesting our souls if He didn't have a plan for each one of us.

And I have a feeling, this plan is more than soup.