Texans and Hoosiers: Update on the Garden

Friday, May 16, 2008

Update on the Garden

Good news! Despite the beating by the hail, everything is still growing!

This week the most noticable change is the lettuce and the squash. They both have opened up quite a bit and suddenly have much bigger leaves (How DOES that happen???). We had a bunch more peppers come up inside the house, but there are still several little pods that have nothing growing at all (see last weeks Biblical lesson to hear what we are learning from the peppers).
This weeks verses are from Matthew 3.

1That same day Jesus went out of the house and sat by the lake. 2Such large crowds gathered around him that he got into a boat and sat in it, while all the people stood on the shore. 3Then he told them many things in parables, saying: "A farmer went out to sow his seed. 4As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up. 5Some fell on rocky places, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly, because the soil was shallow. 6But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root. 7Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants. 8Still other seed fell on good soil, where it produced a crop—a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown. 9He who has ears, let him hear."

18"Listen then to what the parable of the sower means: 19When anyone hears the message about the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what was sown in his heart. This is the seed sown along the path. 20The one who received the seed that fell on rocky places is the man who hears the word and at once receives it with joy. 21But since he has no root, he lasts only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, he quickly falls away. 22The one who received the seed that fell among the thorns is the man who hears the word, but the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of wealth choke it, making it unfruitful. 23But the one who received the seed that fell on good soil is the man who hears the word and understands it. He produces a crop, yielding a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown."

I want for us to understand that it is not by our own intelligence that any of us comes to the Lord. None of us is smart enough to realize that we need Him. In fact, we are just too plain sinful to even recognize it! It is only by His grace that any of us are like the fertile soil and are able to hear and understand His Word. There is no way we can earn our way into fertile soil, and there is no work we can do to make someone else's soil fertile. Only the Lord, by his grace, can do that. It is our job to sow the seed, whether the ground looks fertile or not.

I would like to illustrate this to the kids this week by actualy having them sow seed on the sidewalk, rocky area, the grass (where it would get mowed down even if it did grow). And then we can compare that growth to the fertile soil in our garden. And we can begin praying that God would make the soil of our hearts fertile, so that the seeds of His Word would be planted and grow and bear fruit within us.