Grounds for Sowing

Grounds for Sowing

In the parable of the sower (Matt. 13: 3-8), Jesus describes the seed as falling in various places. Growth and fruit depends upon where the seed lands.

In Baggage burdens. it depends upon when the seeds of love fall in her life. It is sowed many times in her life, but because of her fears she is not ready to nourish the seed and see the potential harvest. Those seeds experience limited development as if they fall by the wayside (dirt path), stony places, shallow soil, or amongst thorns.

It is important to note that the seeds that are sowed, the acts of love for Jill, are good. For a single sower such results can be discouraging. The value of living in God’s community is that repeated seedings come because of the many sowers acting in a loving ways. Sooner of later the Spirit’s love-prompted acts will land in good soil, land in a time when a person is ready to accept that they need His help.

The problem for Josey, Jill’s grandmother, and Joseph, Jill’s husband, is the wait is decades long. Hope is stretched onion-paper thin. The problem for readers of the Baggage burdens. is they learn of the goals of Josey and Joseph only to see them dashed. An understandable reaction is how can Jill be so insensitive.

Experiencing Jill’s life may help. The seeds of her mother’s love fall in soil littered with boulders of her father’s drunken violent outbursts. The seed of Dave’s love––Dave is Jill’s school friend who rescues Jill after she runs away from her parent––is swallowed up by immaturity and a touch of lust. Josey’s initial act of love and Mary and Ed’s becoming substitute parents is the shallow soil. Their acts of love produced growth, but other interests, Jill’s over whelming fears, steal the nutrients that could have produced fruit. Joseph’s committed romantic love for Jill fails. Because of the setting of his love, an inflexible, conservative, rural church upbringing and community, the expected bountiful harvest is choked.

Have you ever tried to help someone only to see him or her fall back into his or her former life style? Perhaps they have returned to drinking or smoking or overspending.

How many times have you extended a helping hand before you began considering giving up?