First you have to plant the seed

‘What shall we say the Kingdom of God is like?’ asked Jesus. ‘What parable shall we use to explain it? It is like this. A man takes a mustard seed, the smallest seed in the world, and plants it in the ground. After a while it grows up and becomes the biggest of all plants. It puts out such large branches that the birds come and make their nests in its shade.’  (verses 30-32)

Read Mark 4: 21-34

Is this about the church? My local congregation? My life? The effect of my witness about Jesus? It doesn’t matter, for the principle is exactly the same.

When I was a child I loved to plant a garden. I’d put seeds in the ground (usually radishes, because they grew fast) and wait for them to grow. When they did, I’d water them, weed them (if I remembered) and, finally eat them. Even though I didn’t really like radishes all that much.

I planted, I watered, I weeded. But it was God who made the seed grow. He, and he alone, could bring a small planted seed to life. He alone could take a tiny seed and tum it into a plant.

It is the same with his word. He is the one who gives power and life to his word. Through the Holy Spirit’s power, faith and new life are created. We tend the garden, watering and feeding, but the life in the plant is Jesus. He alone can give us the power to be what we are made by God: his new creation.

But if someone doesn’t plant the seed, it doesn’t grow.

Lord, use me to be your gardener-and make sure that I do plant the seed. Amen.

by Bob Turnbull, in ‘New Strength for each Day’ (LCA, Openbook, 1998)

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