Good Soil

Matthew 13:1-10

I stare at the words; I realize I've been looking at the page for five minutes, but not reading a thing. Or a friend makes a comment while I'm working at my computer. I don't respond, then a few seconds I look up and ask, "Hey," did you say something?" These experiences remind me that my state of being affects my ability to receive meaning.

Jesus gave the same lesson in the parable of the sower. It's the condition of the soil that most affects the outcome. There are rocky places, thick thorns, shallow sod, and good soil. God's word, like the seed is inherently powerful; given the condition of our hearts his word will either flourish and produce fruit in our lives or it will be neutralized.

I usually think of the different categories of soil as belonging to different people. There's the hard hearted person (rocky places), the busy person (thick thorns), the thoughtless person (shallow sod), and the spiritually minded individual (the good soil). But these categories could also be looked at as different times in my life. For example, sometimes my heart is hard, and other times I'm too busy to absorb God's word.

Looking at the text this way brings new meaning to Proverbs 4:23, "Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life." I want to guard my heart so that when the seed lands there it flourishes. The amazing thing is is if I can keep my heart receptive to God's word, I have an incredible promise. The seed does not just produce one little flower, it produces a crop "a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown" (Matthew 13:8).