Our last frost date
to plant outside in my part of the country is May 21st but most people try and
get some root or cool crops planted by Mother’s Day. My wife and I planted
about 75% of this season’s veggie garden in our square foot garden boxes just
after Mother’s Day last month. I have always loved gardening and getting a
little dirt under my nails. However, my 3 year old granddaughter is a bit
squeamish about playing in the dirt. She likes to keep her painted nails nice
and clean. Why it took us so long to
leave row gardening for this marvelous, miraculous method is all about being
stuck in tradition. Yuck, this reminds me of the church sometimes.
Jesus told a parable in Mark 4:4-8: "As he was
scattering the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it
up. Some fell on rocky places, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up
quickly, because the soil was shallow. but when the sun came up, the plants
were scorched, and they withered because they had no root. Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants, so that they
did not bear grain. Still other seed fell on good soil. It came up, grew and
produced a crop, some multiplying thirty, some sixty, some a hundred times.”
Scattering the Gospel
is sometimes very hard and frustrating work. At times it might seem easier for
us to get bit by a shark while surfing (if we did surf) rather than another no
show by someone we wanted to share the Gospel with. Or this has been the
umpteenth time this week someone not only rejected His words but told us to get
lost as well. I am afraid we (me too) are tempted to just keep our polished finger
nails as far away from the dirt as we possibly can, especially if the quality
of the dirt is the “least of these."
However, I have seen
that some of the seed will take root. Some will multiply. And that group of hungry souls, will make all the pain, all the rejection,
and all the dirt under our finger nails well worth the trouble of sharing the story
of Jesus and how He changed our lives. This won’t happen by accident, because after one
plants the seed there has to be a lot of watering before the Holy Spirit
produces the fruit.
Now watering that is
a different story with my granddaughter. She loves watering to garden! We
purchased a little watering can for her and she will water anything and
everything with exuberant enthusiasm. Could it be that relationship (watering)
is the reward for planting the seed. Working that soil of those we have
developed relationships with could be a lifelong process. We must use all the
creative juices (the different watering and fertilizing methods of sustaining
and deepening relationships) that we have and that the Holy Spirit gives us
(new relationship sustaining ideas).
They (the ones God created for us to reach) are always worth it no matter how much dirt we
get under our nails. May glances at our
nails from time to time be a constant reminder of the lack of or abundance of
dirt that are under those nails. So go
plant some seeds and get those nails really dirty!
