Snow, Seeds, & Soil.

Feb. 11 in The Durant Daily Democrat
At Durant Main Street & Community Theatre’s Dinner Theatre Monday Night at Roma’s, I heard an old but powerful idiom during the performance: “A mighty oak tree was once a nut that just held its ground.” Before I go on I must compliment everyone that made this night out tremendously entertaining and fun. So if you were not there, I am sorry you missed it, and I encourage you to be at one of the numerous performing arts events in town.
However, I am not writing this to persuade you about the importance of art in culture, but because of the small nut that lies below the snow and ice-covered earth. This past Sunday, my wife sung the hymn by Natalie Sleeth and the first verse goes “In the Bulb Is a Flower; in the seed, and apple tree; in cocoons, a hidden promise; butterflies will soon be free! In the cold and snow of winter there’s a spring that waits to be, unrevealed until its season, something God alone can see.” We know as we look out at the cold and seemingly dead landscape, life waits beneath the ground for the season of spring.
Jesus tells us the parable of seeds, according to the 13^th chapter of Matthew. The first seeds were eaten by birds, some fell among the rocks and were scorched, some grew among the thorns that choked them “Other seeds fell on good soil and brought forth grain, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty” (verse 8). This parable speaks to us on many levels, and I suspect that many of you concentrate on the importance of the soil, for I usually do the same. It is clear that throwing seeds on the roadway, among the rocks, or among the thorns will not produce much yield. This is the most important lesson, I believe, of this parable, thus I am always trying to tend to the “soil” as much as I am planting “seeds.” Today, though, I noticed something that the hymn I quoted above makes clear, “God alone can see.” Each of the seeds planted in the good soil as per Jesus’ parable does not yield the same amount, as verse 8 clearly states. Clearly even when the seeds are in the same soil, there will be different outcomes and that is for God alone to see. Jesus even explains the parable in full in the next part of chapter 13 and states in verse 23 “But as for what was sown on good soil, this is the one who hears the word and understands it, who indeed bears fruit and yields, in one case a hundredfold, in another sixty, and in another thirty.” Clearly there is no perfect formula.
We must continue to nourish seeds in the best possible soil. We know resurrection moments happen when we do that, as when someone gives their life to Christ. As Christians we are continually sharing the Good News with our friends and hopefully strangers, so they may get their roots in the good soil and turn toward the SON. We then must remember that once growing with and/or toward Jesus, their yield is in God’s domain, not ours. We can help with the soil, but God is in charge of the growth. This is a difficult part of discipleship, remembering that God is truly the only gardener and we are simply other seeds in His garden.