“He who gathers in summer is a prudent son, but he who sleeps in harvest is a son who brings shame.” (Proverbs 10:5)
Wise preparing is all about knowing what time it is. In the proverb above, Solomon, the wisest of all the ancients, makes a point that seems to go without saying. Anyone who has done any gardening or farming can tell you that you have to bring in your crop at the right time or else all will be lost. You have to time your harvest to the right conditions.
This provides a key lesson for our work in setting our houses and families in order for the hard days that are coming. There is a time to put up your feet and rest. Today is not that time. The sun is shining. The crop of available preparation supplies is hanging low on the trees. It is relatively easy to gather and collect what you’ll need in the future today. Tomorrow, it might become much more difficult. All of us need to be like the prudent son. We need to gather while we can. We need to stock up before the cold blasts of hardship start to blow.
The wise preparer will take full advantage of every opportunity to prepare. He or she will watch for the signs of bad weather (whether economic, political, or social) and will prepare against the evil day. Do you know what time it is? It is time to act. It is time to gather. It is time to prepare.
This Day in Church History
April 21, 1109: Anselm, archbishop of Canterbury dies at around the age of 76. St. Anselm is regarded as one of the most profound thinkers of the Middle Ages. He is best remembered three contributions: He argued that faith is the precondition of knowledge (“credo ut intelligam”). That only God can reveal the truth to man and that man in his rebellious state cannot truly know truth. He introduced the idea of what is called the “satisfaction theory” of the atonement (“No one but one who is the God-man can make the satisfaction by which man is saved”). Previously, the church had emphasized the idea that Jesus paid a price to the devil to free man from his sin. Anselm was the first (since the Apostles) to assert that the atonement of Christ was a payment to the justice of the Father. Finally, Anselm is remembered for developing the “ontological argument” for God’s existence. This is the argument that in order for anything to have being there must have been a Being (i.e. God) who brought all other beings into existence.