Saturday, 18 April 2015

Gardening and the Parable of the Sower

It is Spring and the time to tend the garden. Just like the other gardeners, we use this time to plant seeds and clean the garden. When the rain pours, it gets easier to till the soil. I started doing it and to keep my mind about the chance of encountering earthworms, I think about the parable of the sower while tilling the soil.  It is true that before a seed grows, we need to soften the soil, till it, remove the rocks and weeds and water it. I encountered soils that are so hard, they are like dried clay, no chance of seed to grow in that kind of soil. But just like life's trials and tragedies to a man with a hardened heart, the blows of the spading fork or a tiller makes the soil break lose and soft, with watering, it becomes ready to be planted with seeds. With careful and steady tender loving care, the seeds will grow, harden and then bear fruit or flowers.

The application to the parable is just simple yet profound. All of us are the garden, some of us will have hard, clay-like soil, others will have rocks, others with weeds. If we don't prepare our hearts to accept the seed, it will not stay, grow and bear. God will use something to remind us that purpose, He  will use problems, tragedies or some people to clean us and prepare our hearts fro Gods planting,

When I think about the reasons why our hearts could harden, I though about pride, self-reliance, hurt from past, anger and  rage.  So the weeds and rocks could be our careers, problems, issues, hobbies, Worldly music, shows and movies, love for money and material things that if will not remove them in our garden, will also mean the delay in the planting of the seeds.

The good soil however is the one who is always cultivated, loose and watered. There is a tender loving care to the seed so that it keeps on growing.  The following are the equivalents of the tiller, water and seeds : daily devotions time with God, praise and worship, bible study and activities that promote or encourage God's presence. You know what happens next right? The seed will grow and bear fruit. The daily watering is Gods words being poured out to make seed grow into something bigger.

The seed becomes a young plant then later on blooms and bear fruit. That's the result that every gardener wants to achieve. The same way God wants our lives to become. To bloom and bear fruit for God's glory. He is our gardener and sower.