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While a large crowd was gathering and people were coming to Jesus from town after town, he told this parable: "A farmer went out to sow his seed. As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path; it was trampled on, and the birds ate it up. Some fell on rocky ground, and when it came up, the plants withered because they had no moisture. Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up with it and choked the plants. Still other seed fell on good soil. It came up and yielded a crop, a hundred times more than was sown." When he said this, he called out, "Whoever has ears to hear, let them hear."
-Luke 8: 4-8
I must confess that I love this parable of a farmer using out of the ordinary planting methods. After all, the Kingdom of God shows up in our midst in some ordinary ways. An element of growing seeds that doesn't get mentioned in the parable yet is essential to growth is the watering of the seeds.
I was reminded of this when I caught Lisa Lucas in the act of watering young plants that will be grown in the new preschool garden.
The act of watering is what I call the wisdom of hope. It's one thing to fling seeds all around and hope that they will grow. I think that is more wishful thinking. The knowledge of growth; however says that it's wise to faithfully water the seeds and continue watering as they develop into mature plants.
As a gardener myself, I believe that it is wise to have a calendar of planned watering. Rain comes and it doesn't as we have all found out this spring. Hope has a consistent schedule for watering.
Speaking of schedule, I hope that you have a copy of our Quarterly Brochure which lists all the scheduled watering for the Kingdom of God. Here are a few: Soles for Souls Shoe Drive; Youth High School Trip to Montreat; Middle School Youth trip to the Great Escape and our Mission Week. To learn more read the Quarterly Brochure of Activities at JCPC and water your growing soul. Click here for Quarterly Brochure.
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