"Gather the Wheat into my Barn"
In Matthew 13:24, Jesus put forth a parable about the Kingdom of Heaven. He said that the Kingdom was like a man who sowed good seed in his field. This was wheat seed. He went on to describe that the enemy came in the night and also sowed -- tares--imposter plants, as an attempt to crowd out the wheat and make it weak, effectively diminishing the work of the farmer. Then the servants of the farmer reported this intrusion of tares in the field. Should they immediately start pulling up the tares? "Nay," he said. The plants were young and if the tares were pulled, wheat would come up with them, so wait until harvest time. The tares were to be pulled, bundled, and burned. The best line came: "Gather the wheat into my barn." The barn was a place of safety for farm animals and storage of harvested crops.
In the Doctrine and Covenants, there are various passages which refer to gathering the people of Zion, such as D&C 45:71-
"And it shall come to pass that the righteous shall be gathered out from among the nations, and shall come to Zion, singing with songs of everlasting joy."
The Doctrine and Covenants in 97:21 calls Zion the "pure in heart."
So, the righteous people in the Last Days, who listen to the Lord's voice call them, will be gathered into his barn, in the place of safety. Thus, I chose the wheat as my symbol.
Many people have heard of the term, Kibbutz, for the agricultural working and housing collective of Jews in the Land of Israel. The word, Kibbutz (Modern Hebrew qibbūṣ) means, gathering.
https://www.dictionary.com/browse/kibbutz
Wheat is also a one of the symbols of the tribes of Joseph, who in the Last Days would dominate in the Western part of the world. In the book of Genesis, Joseph saved his family from starvation. Wheat makes bread, which when multiplied, means loaves to feed many. When bread came from the kingdom of heaven it was called Manna. When bread was a house, it was Bethlehem. When people are fed, it can be physical or spiritual. So the whole thing is very full of much symbolism!
So this is the Logo I chose in September 2019. Notice the sheaves of wheat:
Off and on for a couple of months, my spouse has been watching YouTube videos about the world's trash and how it is being processed (or not). So this past week on the evening of January 31, 2020, up on the suggested videos feed on YouTube, was a video about trash in Jerusalem. I watched it -- Imagine my delightful shock, when I saw an image of a coin found in an ancient dump outside of Jerusalem, that dated back to the time of Jesus! The coin had an engraved image on it very similar to my logo!
Credit for this image (which I photographed from the video) comes from the work of Archeologist and Professor Ronny Reich and a colleague, who, in 1995 in the Kidron Valley outside the walls of Jerusalem, found the above-mentioned ancient dump containing bones from ancient animal sacrifices, pottery, household trash, and coins dating to King Agrippa the First. The king had the coins minted his 6th year of the 40's CE (AD). Archeology is very valuable to Israel because of the naysayers, both historical and political.
If you wish to watch the video yourself, here is the link. If you don't want to watch the whole thing, the portion mentioning the coins and other items in the ancient dump, look for minutes around 2:59 - 5:16 of the video.
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