I love to garden, but it sure is hard work! When I trimmed back my rosebushes this fall, I ended up with scratches from thorns all over my body - even through my jeans and gloves that I wore while working. It took me days to cut back everything I wanted to cut back, and I think I bagged about 30 trash bags (the big yard waste ones) in the process. I really appreciate my garbage men for picking all that up! Even with the trimming I did, I look at my garden now and know that I have my work cut out for me this spring. After all, I only cleaned up the beds. I still have to turn the soil, remulch, and plant new plants. Only when I prepare the beds correctly, will they then be ready to receive the new, fragile plants. After I plant the plants, I'll have to feed them, watch them, and maybe even protect them from unexpected weather - drought, cold temperatures, etc. And, that's only the front flower beds! I still have a very large garden in the back that needs to be tilled, mulched, and seeded! It sure is a lot of work, and not just for one season, but all the time! Yet I will continue to work on it, because I love looking at all the blooms in the spring and eating the homegrown produce from the vegetable garden in back.
The Parable of the Sower
4:1-12pp -- Mt 13:1-15; Lk 8:4-10 4:13-20pp -- Mt 13:18-23; Lk 8:11-15
1 Again Jesus began to teach by the lake. The crowd that gathered around him was so large that he got into a boat and sat in it out on the lake, while all the people were along the shore at the water's edge. 2 He taught them many things by parables, and in his teaching said: 3 "Listen! A farmer went out to sow his seed. 4 As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up. 5 Some fell on rocky places, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly, because the soil was shallow. 6 But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root. 7 Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants, so that they did not bear grain. 8 Still other seed fell on good soil. It came up, grew and produced a crop, multiplying thirty, sixty, or even a hundred times." 9 Then Jesus said, "He who has ears to hear, let him hear." 10 When he was alone, the Twelve and the others around him asked him about the parables. 11 He told them, "The secret of the kingdom of God has been given to you. But to those on the outside everything is said in parables 12 so that, " 'they may be ever seeing but never perceiving, and ever hearing but never understanding; otherwise they might turn and be forgiven!' " 13 Then Jesus said to them, "Don't you understand this parable? How then will you understand any parable? 14 The farmer sows the word. 15 Some people are like seed along the path, where the word is sown. As soon as they hear it, Satan comes and takes away the word that was sown in them. 16 Others, like seed sown on rocky places, hear the word and at once receive it with joy. 17 But since they have no root, they last only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, they quickly fall away. 18 Still others, like seed sown among thorns, hear the word; 19 but the worries of this life, the deceitfulness of wealth and the desires for other things come in and choke the word, making it unfruitful. 20 Others, like seed sown on good soil, hear the word, accept it, and produce a crop--thirty, sixty or even a hundred times what was sown."
The Parable of the Sower has been on my mind for the past couple of weeks. I want to be good soil - the kind that hears God's word, accepts, it, and produces a crop. But I know that tending to soil is a lot of hard work. It's very easy to turn our backs to the garden and let it get overgrown with weeds, or dried out from lack of water. The best news is, I have all the tools I need to keep my soil healthy. God's Word is my nourishment - it waters my soil and keeps it fed. To turn my soil, I have my fellow believers - friends who will pray with me when the work seems too hard, and friends who will stand by me when there is a particularly daunting task ahead and keep me encouraged to go forward. Thanks friends! I hope you know that I will bring my trowel to your garden and lend a hand when you need it!
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