“Rich Soil Is Needed”

“Oh I’ve heard that before….. I know all about that”.  What is it in me that switches to another station once I think I’ve heard something before. “Hey, I don’t want to waste my time going over that again.” 

Well that may not be a problem if the matter at hand is trivial, like a joke I’ve heard before or even a story. But it becomes a real problem if it’s the Word of God, and I somehow think,  “hey I understand that scripture reading, I’ve plunged the depths of that parable… let’s move on to some new, more interesting words…”

I just re-read the parable of the sower and the seeds (Mt. 13:1-23. I’ve read that parable many times; I’ve heard many sermons on it. I have some understanding of its meaning. Yet, it’s like a gold mine; I may have discovered a few veins of gold, but there is much more. With God there is always much, much more. 

I generally try to find myself in the parable of the sower, hoping that my soul is the rich soil that embraces the word of God and yields a rich harvest. Yet when I’m honest, I see that my soul still has all four of the landing areas for the seed…. the foot path, rocky ground, thorns, and some rich soil. After all these years, there is still too many concrete pavers, thorn bushes, and rocks…there is still work to do. The holy gardener still needs to work on that soil. 

Many years ago I was preparing a section of our yard for Judy’s garden. It was real work …. a lot of rocks, clay, weeds. It took years of work for the soil to become welcoming to her plants. Even when it was in pretty good shape, each year it required additional care and fertilizer… weeding, watering, protection from the local varmints.  It clearly wasn’t a “one and done”.

So hopefully as we look at the garden of our souls, we can see that the rich soil is increasing, evidenced by an increasing yield of good fruit… not tomatoes and corn and beans …..  but fruits of peace, joy, patience, kindness, of love. And where we still see too many rocks and thorns (aka lure of riches, fear of persecution, attacks of Satan) let’s not lose hope. The holy gardener is still at work and the rich soil is increasing….. yielding 30-60-and even 100 fold. And that is very good news.