Jesus said, “Behold a sower went out to sow. And as he sowed some seed fell by the wayside; and the birds came and devoured them. Some fell on stony places where they did not have much earth; and they immediately sprang up because they had no depth of earth. But when the sun was up they were scorched, and because they had no root withered away. And some fell on thorns, and the thorns sprang up and choked them out. but others fell on good ground and yielded a crop, some a hundred fold, some sixty some thirty.” Matthew 13:3-7

A large part of my backyard is barren of swath of dirt that I’ve been staring at for months wondering what to do about it. I was hoping sod might be an option but at this point remains out of my budget and the reason why nothing’s been done at this point. This past weekend I’d stared at the dirt long enough. I purchased a few dollars worth of seed, pulled out my rake and my hoe and my shovel and got to work preparing the soil. Near the end of the day as I looked back at my neatly raked yard filled with seed just beneath the surface, I understood the parable of the sower in a new way.

Is Anything At All Going To Grow?

Some of that soil was a bit rocky. I did my best to clean it up, but did I get it all? Some of that soil was a bit hard and had not been turned in a long time. Would the seed take? Those weeds I pulled, did I get them at the root or are they going to rise up and take over the grass? Our lives are not all that different. Through the years I’ve confronted many questions: Will I keep the faith when things are rocky and not going my way? Can I break those habits because my hard-headedness prevents it? How do I manage all of these daily distractions that act as weeds attempting to choke out my faith? And yet there is that final example that Jesus gave. The one where the seed falls on “good soil producing a hundred fold”. Where does that show up in our lives, you might ask? Ahh, there is golden answer. It shows up in your life in the form of what the Bible calls the fruit of the Spirit; Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Gentleness and Self Control. When you feel any of these coming forth in your life, you are the good soil that our Heavenly Father is sowing into.