Digging Deeper – Sowing at Home

Last year, we had the water line running to our house break and flood the front yard (hours before we were about to leave for vacation, I might add). It was quite a spectacle. After everything was said and done and the plumbing was repaired, there was a gigantic section on our front lawn where the grass had been destroyed. Like any responsible person in the throes of homeownership, I found myself out in the yard tilling and reseeding the lawn. Using my handheld spreader, I sowed seed generously in the affected area. Some landed in the correct spot, some flung far away, and some even landed on the driveway. As the days went by, new grass began to spring up, but not everywhere. I realized some areas hadn’t been tilled properly, and the seed simply sat atop the ground, never finding purchase in the soil.

Likewise, I used the blower to clear the driveway of the seed that had fallen by the wayside. Do you think that the Parable of the Sower (Luke 8:4-15) crossed my mind through all of this? You betcha! It was all I could think about. The Lord was giving me an object lesson to teach me something I already knew but needed to remember by way of experience.

What a great and merciful God, He that condescends to draw the eternal from the humbler and plainer figures of everyday life and observation—fields and forests, ploughmen and fishermen, beauty and creation. In wisdom, He gives parables that can at once instruct an ancient audience and yet find familiarity among modern readers so displaced in time. An old theologian, describing the accessibility of Christ’s teaching, says, “The homeliness of the illustrations, whilst it links the teaching with the daily life of His time, yet sufficiently frees them from local peculiarity to render them of universal application.” It is no surprise, therefore, that after He finished these parables, the multitude murmured, “From whence has this man these things? And what wisdom is this which is given unto him?” (Mark 6:2). Yet, in spite of their astonishment, many took offense at Him and unwittingly demonstrated that their hearts were the footpath robbed of the seeds by the birds.

Take inventory this morning. Is the Holy Spirit using the ordinary around you to illustrate some spiritual truth that you may be missing out on? Ask Him to give you awareness. Pray for ears to hear and eyes to see that you may have an “honest and good heart, and bear fruit with patience” (Luke 8:15).