Be patient. This is the call James places on our life. The farmer plants his seed and waits for it to produce. The seed must receive rain and sun. It must endure seasons both of glorious warmth and bitter cold. In doing so, the seed will transform, the shell will burst, and from it, something will grow both up and down. Roots will begin to descend deep into the earth, and the stem will climb toward the sky until finally, it becomes something meaningful to the farmer.

James gives us this analogy to show us two aspects of our waiting. 

1. As a farmer this for his produce, so we too must wait on the coming of the Lord. The seed must reach its desired end before Jesus comes to harvest. 2. We are that seed. We are what has been planted and God is what we have received so that we can grow and endure both glorious seasons of joy and bitter seasons of trial. God’s promise is that as we wait we are becoming all that he desired of us, but also that he is, in fact, coming to harvest all that is good when it is finished.

Whether this season is one of joy or trial, may we have patience as we wait for the coming of our Lord, knowing that he waits so that all will come to a knowledge of him, and that is a waiting worth being a part of (2 Peter 3:9).