It's been a long week at our house. Besides softball games and practices, choir rehearsals and concert, Kaelie has been spending some late nights working on her 7th grade science fair project. She finally turned it in today, and the science fair open house will be Monday evening.
For her project, Kaelie decided to test several different fertilizers on green bean plants. She planted four pots using vermiculite (a sythetic soil which contains no nutrients whatsoever) in each one. She left one pot unfertilized, added Miracle Grow to one, some other kind of fertilizer to another, and coffee grounds to the fourth.
As we watched the seeds sprout, we noted that each of the plants seemed to start out about the same, and continued with similar growth and health over the course of several weeks. More recently, however, the plants in the pure vermiculite and the coffee grounds began yellowing, and the beans they produced did not appear to be as large or healthy. The end result, Miracle Grow appeared to grow the healthiest-looking bean plants.
As Kaelie worked late into the night last night preparing her presentation, the Holy Spirit reminded me of Jesus' parable of the four soils in Mark 4:14-20.
"The farmer sows the word. Some people are like seed along the path, where the word is sown. As soon as they hear it, Satan comes and takes away the word that was sown in them. Others, like the seed sown on rocky places, hear the word and at once receive it with joy. But since they have no root, they last only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, they quickly fall away. Still others, like seed sown among thorns, hear the word; but the worries of this life, the deceitfulness of wealth and the desires for other things come in and choke the word, making it unfruitful. Others, like seed sown on good soil, hear the word, accept it, and produce a crop--thirty, sixty or even a hundred times what was sown."
Kaelie's bean plants did not have a choice of fertilizers. They got whatever she chose, or chose not to mix in. They grew as best they could, but a couple began to wither. The one that received the fertilizer which supplied exactly the right nutrients was able to thrive.
What are you using for your fertilizer? It's so easy to rely on friends and family to see us through hard times, or turn to self-help books written by self-proclaimed gurus on whatever the subject matter happens to be.
In the parable of the four soils, Jesus offers the best fertilizer of all, his word! It supplies exactly what we need to not only sustain us, but to help us to grow and flourish as people of God. Unlike the bean plants which had no say-so in their fertilization, we have a choice to "hear the word, accept it, and produce a crop." And what a crop it could be...a harvest of people who look at our lives and our faith and say, "I'll have whatever she's having!"
What fertilizer can I offer to a withering soul? Divine miracle grow of course, the Word of God!
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