Good Monday Morning (4-4-11),

I really enjoyed hearing Sarah Timothy share her thoughts about Jesus’ parable of the sower, so, I wanted to share them with you too. This is an excerpt from last week’s open mic service in which she shared these words. Wayne.

I’ve heard a lot of worrying and fretting over the parable of the sower and the different kinds of soil. In fact, I myself have had some unsettled thoughts as though it was predestined to be one type or the other, and that is just that.

But as I get older and garden more, I am convinced that Jesus used stories about nature, the garden and seeds, because these were things people lived with daily and understood deeply.

Our society now is so far removed from nature that I think we have lost some of the depth of meaning of Jesus’ stories. The parable talks of seed falling on hard soil, rocky soil, amongst the thorns, etc. The seed being God’s word and the soil being men’s hearts. This used to worry me, and I would hope more than pray that I would by some chance be good soil.

The truth is in gardening that most gardeners, when presented with a plot of less than desirable land, don’t move on to another piece. But rather begin to work it and develop it.

They throw the rocks out, they break it with a plow, and they amend it in areas it is deficient. The seed is of most importance, so the energy is spent to cultivate its home.

I now believe that we choose what kind of soil our hearts are. We choose by the value and priority we place on the seed. How important is it to us? I know in my garden if have a cheap or generic type of seed, I fluff the soil and sow it.

If it doesn’t thrive or and grow, I can easily try again later. However, if I get a particularly delicate, rare, or expensive seed, I take great pains to read the instructions, deeply cultivate and amend the soil, and protect it once it has sprouted.

The seed is important to me, so I take the extra time and energy required to make it grow. I believe we can make the choice to make God’s word grow in our hearts. Seed has amazing potential, but that is for another day.

The Bible clearly says that it [the seed] was scattered everywhere, to everyone, and every person, and the soil was the determining factor. We choose our soil, we choose whether God’s word grows and produces in our lives.

One last thought. In early spring, as it is now, I have noticed that my garden soil appears to be hard and barren. In truth it only needs to be broken, turned over, and the rich, black, fertile soil beneath is ready to grow.

I think this can represent some hearts as well, at least mine at times. We need to be broken and soft before God. To be fertile, we need to plow our hearts.

I have observed that situations in life can sometimes plow and break hard soil in people’s lives. Then the seed finally grows, but how hard and often painful. Let us each cultivate our own hearts, that when the plows come we are already soft, supple and fluid. Let us be good soil, let us value the seed.

Sarah Timothy

Break up your unplowed ground and do not sow among thorns. Jeremiah 4:3