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The Hundredfold Return

“And Jesus replied, ‘Let me assure you that no one has ever given up anything—home, brothers, sisters, mother, father, children, or property—for love of me and to tell others the Good News, who won’t be given back, a hundred times over, homes, brothers, sisters, mothers, children, and land—with persecutions!  All these will be his here on earth, and in the world to come he shall have eternal life,’” (Mark 10:29-30 The Living Bible). 

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Most people have figured that hundredfold mean 100 times, as said in these verses; believe it or not, some have thought it to be 100%.

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But I actually looked into this, first I took an 8 ½ X 11 piece of paper and tried to fold it 100 times, I couldn’t.   Fold it just ten times and you get too many small boxes to count.

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Then I recalled that Isaac planted in the land of famine and in one year reaped a hundredfold.  What are the major crops they Isaac would have planted?  Wheat and corn are what I figured.  I chose to work with corn.  Corn has three ears on each stalk.  I had a friend who use to be a farmer, and he told me how many kernels of corn are on each ear, talking about a good, fully grown, healthy ear. 

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Let’s say there are 200 kernels on each ear; that’s 600 seeds on each stalk.  Now, a good seed produces three stalks each year, at least out in the Middle East near the equator.  So, let’s multiply that out; 200 x 3 x 3=  600 x 3=  1800.  That’s 1800 off of each one seed, and that’s what I figured is a hundredfold return.

“Isaac planted crops in that land and the same year reaped a hundredfold, because the Lord blessed him,” (Genesis 26::12 New International Version).

But, then I recalled something else in the Bible, something that the Lord said through Paul,

“Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us,” (Ephesians 3:20 King James Version).

So, I prayed and talked to my best friend, my God, about it.  The hundredfold (1800 times) return is just a drop in the bucket compared to what God can do for us.  It would seem that we fragile human creations of God can only imagine on a limited basis, up to a hundredfold (not even that much, only to a hundred times).  But God is unlimited in what He can do with your gift of love-that is freely and joyfully given.

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When you think of a nice house what do you see?  You probably think of a two thousand square foot, two story, very comfortable house in a nice country setting.  Meanwhile God, the God who knows everything about you, has in mind a mansion, more palatial than anything you can ask or think.

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That’s why we need to expand our thought process, so that we can ask and think higher.  If we can think it, God can do it.  

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