Sowing seed

Matthew 13:1-9; 18-23

I don't know how many of you are gardners. My grandmother was a prolific flower grower, and my father had a huge vegetable garden when I was a child. But me - well, I've got a few bulbs planted but that's about the extent of it. Sometimes I'll get flowering annuals and put them out. I can't remember the last time I planted a seed to grow anything though.



Jesus tells the story about a sower who scatters the seed and then watches what happens. My first question is this -- why wasn't he more careful? Would it have taken that much more time to be sure that the seed all went into the good soil? But that's not the story. Some of the seed falls where it has no chance to bloom, some in shallow soil so that it blooms then quickly dies, some of it grows ok but is choked out by weeds, and the last is the good stuff that stays good.



In the church I think we are most likely to fall into the middle two categories. We get excited about God but then burn out quickly, or we get excited about God but forget God when the cares of life take away our attention. We're always striving to be the constantly faithful ones, but all too rarely do we acheive it.



As we get ready to explore this week's scripture, I wonder what we'll learn about getting our spiritual nutritional needs met.