Scattering Seeds

The Farmer Scattering Seed – Wheat or Weed, Which am I?

Matthew 13   ¹Later that same day Jesus left the house and sat beside the lake. ² A large crowd soon gathered around him, so he got into a boat. Then he sat there and taught as the people stood on the shore. ³ He told many stories in the form of parables, such as this one:

“Listen! A farmer went out to plant some seeds. ⁴ As he scattered them across his field, some seeds fell on a footpath, and the birds came and ate them. ⁵ Other seeds fell on shallow soil with underlying rock. The seeds sprouted quickly because the soil was shallow. ⁶ But the plants soon wilted under the hot sun, and since they didn’t have deep roots, they died.⁷ Other seeds fell among thorns that grew up and choked out the tender plants. ⁸ Still other seeds fell on fertile soil, and they produced a crop that was thirty, sixty, and even a hundred times as much as had been planted! ⁹ Anyone with ears to hear should listen and understand.”

¹⁰ His disciples came and asked him, “Why do you use parables when you talk to the people?”  ¹¹ He replied, “You are permitted to understand the secrets^[a]of the Kingdom of Heaven, but others are not. ¹² To those who listen to my teaching, more understanding will be given, and they will have an abundance of knowledge. But for those who are not listening, even what little understanding they have will be taken away from them. ¹³ That is why I use these parables, For they look, but they don’t really see.   They hear, but they don’t really listen or understand.

After reading this passage and the passage that follows about the Wheat and the Weeds, I was sad, confused, and even angry.  Yes – angry.  I thought to myself, am I just a seed that fell on the footpath? Am I a seed that fell on shallow soil? Did I wilt under the hot sun?  Did I get choked by thorns I fell among?  Or did I somehow fall on fertile soil?  I was upset because as hard as I have tried, until recent years, I hadn’t taken root.  Maybe I did and didn’t realize it.

As I thought about myself, my failures, my disappointments, my pain and pain I’ve caused,  I was initially mad because I thought I didn’t throw the seed, I was the seed that was thrown. 

 I felt sad, thinking I didn’t take root in good soil.  I was actually mad because I didn’t plant myself; I was thrown out here to take root somehow, somewhere, someway.  After two weeks of thinking about it, trying to come to grips with where I am now – in the scheme of things – one Saturday afternoon as I was cleaning, and the thoughts were going through my mind, I asked God, did I make the cut? Am I strong enough? Am I wheat or am I a weed?  Do I grow and feed or do I grow and destroy. 

I was in the middle of dusting an end table in our living room and I saw a plate I got for Lance awhile back – God answered me in that moment.  The plate says:  Don’t judge each day by the harvest you reap – BUT – by the seed you sow.  I realized I did fall on fertile soil.  My Mother rooted me in the truth, it just took me a while to take of the nutrients and sprout.  And my responsibility and purpose is to plant the seed.  It doesn’t matter if it’s on the footpath, in shallow soil, or among thorns.  What matters is to plant the seed and let God do his part. To have faith, to believe, to KNOW he will.  

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