HOW DOES YOUR GARDEN GROW
DAY 50: When our kids were in elementary school we decided to try planting a garden. We picked the sunniest patch of ground on our three acres and planted a crop. It was great fun. I rented a tiller and the kids helped me hoe the ground into rows. We bought bags of manure and spread them according to the instructions. Then we planted a wide variety of vegetables, most of which no one in my family even likes. No matter, the fun was in harvesting the crop. We cold always give our fabulous luscious veggies away.
About two weeks into our project I discovered a fatal flaw in the plan. We planted too far from the water. Taking care of the garden meant dragging out hoses every day and committing at least an hour to soaking the tender plants. It was such hot dirty work, that after three weeks I decided the plants would just have to fend for themselves and prayed for rain. About midsummer when the crop should have been ready to harvest, we got nothing. Some parts of the ground were so dry and hard seeds never spouted. Other parts didn't get tilled well enough and plants couldn't take root in the red clay we are famous for in East Texas. The only thing that looked promising was the corn which grew tall and had some ears. But when we opened them up, they were half eaten by birds and critters and as hard as a rock. I am no Mother Earth.
Or am I... a few years later we decided to try again. This time, I learned from my mistakes. I chose a spot right by the back door to the house with a faucet spicket two feet away. I invested about $500 buying a tiller, wire fencing to keep the animals out, fertilizer, a sprinkler, new hoes, shovels and the seedling plants instead of seeds. My teens all helped and when we were done, we had a gorgeous garden plot. We watered the dickens out of it and hoped for the best. Just as it was really getting going, we left town for two weeks and paid a neighbor boy to keep the water going. Then when we came back it was like the story of Jack and the Bean stalk... it had grown and grown and grown. BUT... so had the weeds. In fact the weeds had completely chocked out all of the seedlings. Only a few hardy plants found a way to root and thrive because we didn't put the effort into keeping the weeds under control. It was so overgrown, we decided to just keep watering and hope for the best. In the end,I had a garden full of weeds and exactly enough bounty from my garden for ONE single bowl of salad. My husband pointed out that it was probably the most expensive salad ever made.
I tell you this true story to say that when I read about Jesus telling the parable of the soils in today's Scripture reading, I really understood the object lesson because I lived it! Jesus mentioned four kinds of soil (representing hearts) where seed (the message of the Gospel) was planted; and each yielded a different kind of crop. There was hard soil, like red clay, yielded nothing. There was rocky soil which kept the roots from going deep and the plants dried up. There was thorny soil that let the plants that sprouted get crowded out by other things. And there was good soil that yielded a bumper crop (-that's the only one I have NO experience with). Of course Jesus was not talking about gardening. He was explaining how so many could hear the same Good News yet be effected so differently. It had nothing to do with the seed. In all the instances, the seed was good... it was the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The problem was the soil and the tending. We are the soil. And while I have always seen myself as the GOOD SOIL, as I really examined the list of soil-related problems, I can see some tending issues.
From Jesus, as recorded in Mark 4, here is the list of pestilence that can ruin even the most excellent Seed:
1. A thief who comes and steals the seed of the Word - this thief is the Master of Lies who tells us we didn't want the seed anyway... He convinces us the Word is useless.
2. Challenging problems or persecution keeps the Word from taking root.
3. OKAY, here is a really convicting list: Cares of the world, the lure of wealth, and the desire for nice things all crowd out the Word received so that it can't produce a great crop even though it's rooted.
Mark 4:8 Still other seed fell on good soil. It came up, grew and produced a crop, some multiplying thirty, some sixty, some a hundred times.
I've always known I wasn't the hard or the rocky soil. By God's grace, the message of Christ has rooted in my heart, my soul and my mind and produced in me the first fruit, which is salvation. I've even seen other crops that God has produced in my life as I have followed Him. BUT... has He produced 30, 60 or even 100 fold? Am I yielding all that I could from the seed He planted?
As I have wrestled with the cares of the world and all that it offers.... has it been at the expense of crowding out what could be a bumper crop instead of mere bowls full here and there. I want the 100 fold life with Christ. I want my life to produce good things that show off how great the Seed that was planted truly is - So I think I need to do some weeding! And perhaps some watering.
Happy Gardening in your own life!
Kim
Day 50 of 365
Leviticus 7:28-38
Leviticus 8
Leviticus 9:1-6
Mark 3:31-35
Mark 4:1-25
Psalm 37:12-29
Proverbs 10:5
About two weeks into our project I discovered a fatal flaw in the plan. We planted too far from the water. Taking care of the garden meant dragging out hoses every day and committing at least an hour to soaking the tender plants. It was such hot dirty work, that after three weeks I decided the plants would just have to fend for themselves and prayed for rain. About midsummer when the crop should have been ready to harvest, we got nothing. Some parts of the ground were so dry and hard seeds never spouted. Other parts didn't get tilled well enough and plants couldn't take root in the red clay we are famous for in East Texas. The only thing that looked promising was the corn which grew tall and had some ears. But when we opened them up, they were half eaten by birds and critters and as hard as a rock. I am no Mother Earth.
 |
| The planting crew. |
 |
| My entire $500 harvest. |
From Jesus, as recorded in Mark 4, here is the list of pestilence that can ruin even the most excellent Seed:
1. A thief who comes and steals the seed of the Word - this thief is the Master of Lies who tells us we didn't want the seed anyway... He convinces us the Word is useless.
2. Challenging problems or persecution keeps the Word from taking root.
3. OKAY, here is a really convicting list: Cares of the world, the lure of wealth, and the desire for nice things all crowd out the Word received so that it can't produce a great crop even though it's rooted.
Mark 4:8 Still other seed fell on good soil. It came up, grew and produced a crop, some multiplying thirty, some sixty, some a hundred times.
I've always known I wasn't the hard or the rocky soil. By God's grace, the message of Christ has rooted in my heart, my soul and my mind and produced in me the first fruit, which is salvation. I've even seen other crops that God has produced in my life as I have followed Him. BUT... has He produced 30, 60 or even 100 fold? Am I yielding all that I could from the seed He planted?
As I have wrestled with the cares of the world and all that it offers.... has it been at the expense of crowding out what could be a bumper crop instead of mere bowls full here and there. I want the 100 fold life with Christ. I want my life to produce good things that show off how great the Seed that was planted truly is - So I think I need to do some weeding! And perhaps some watering.
Happy Gardening in your own life!
Kim
Day 50 of 365
Leviticus 7:28-38
Leviticus 8
Leviticus 9:1-6
Mark 3:31-35
Mark 4:1-25
Psalm 37:12-29
Proverbs 10:5
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