Preparing the Soil

 

Every year as spring approaches I go through the annual ritual of getting the vegetable garden ready for planting. I dig up or pull all the weeds that have grown through the winter. I turn over the dirt and add fertilizer and other soil amendments to get the ground ready for planting.

 

Jesus gave us the parable of the sower and the seed (Lk 8:4-15). The farmer sowed the seeds. Some of them landed on the path, others on rocky ground, and others among thorns. None of these seeds were productive. Only the seed which was sown on good soil produced a crop.

 

I don’t know if you ever thought about it but I wonder what the sower did before he started putting out the seed.  I imagine he tried to get as many rocks and thorns and weeds out of the ground as he could to help increase the crop. He probably also worked the ground to make it as receptive to the seed as possible.

 

It’s a good idea for us to stop once in awhile to think about the condition of our soil, i.e., our heart. How caught up are we in material things? Have we “cast our cares upon Jesus” or do we worry constantly without giving it up to God? Are we regularly reading and hearing the word of God? Let’s all strive to be “good soil” that God can use productively.

 

“Sow for yourselves righteousness, reap the fruit of unfailing love, and break up your unplowed ground; for it is time to seek the Lord, until He comes and showers righteousness on you.” (Hosea 10:12).