When Seed Takes Root (Matthew 13; Luke 8)

Until one has lived a long while, it is impossible to see the importance of discipleship, but I have lived long enough to see the evidence accumulate. At eighteen I moved to Auburn for my last two years of college, coming from the small mountain community (flat as it may be) in North Alabama where I grew up. Until I reached Auburn, I never had anyone truly pour into me the teaching of the Word, only the gospel itself through reading or preaching. I had never had anyone come alongside me to disciple me and teach me how to walk out my faith and to begin living in a way that would please God.  I attended church, read my Bible, and prayed, but far too often failed to live in a way that glorified Him. In short, I was shallow beyond belief.

Jesus often taught in parables, and only those who had “ears to hear” heard. I spent many years reading these parables and many years failing to truly understand them much less apply them to my own life. One of these parables is the Parable of the Sower related in both Matthew 13 and Luke 8, and in both Jesus speaks of seed being sown. The Bible teaches that the “seed is the word of God” (Luke 8:11). The seed was sown often in my young life, and I heard it and received it eagerly from a young age. However, the funny thing is that I expected growth by just attending church my whole life, expecting all the tillage and care and watering to be done in a few brief hours, if that much, each week, and reading casually from the Bible weekly. The rest of the time in my teen years, I lived my life just like those around me with one foot in the world without realizing that was nowhere near acceptable.

Fortunately for me, coming to Auburn opened the floodgates for people in my life to pour the truth of the Word into me and teach me the cost of following Christ.  One of those people was my husband who quickly began washing me with the water of the Word, often against my will, often speaking things I didn’t (and sometimes still don’t) want to hear. Because he is an agronomist, through the years my close association with him has deepened my still simplistic understanding of seed and planting and cultivating and harvesting.

One thing I have learned is that a seed contains all the genetic information inside it that determines what it will become. There is good seed, and there is bad seed, but once a seed is planted, it becomes what it is supposed to become. A seed of cotton cannot become a corn plant. A seed of cotton can only demonstrate the properties inherent to it as it grows or flourishes (or fails to do so). That sounds logical, yes? Then why don’t we also apply that to Jesus’ words about seed planted? His seed, the Word of God, planted in us cannot fail but produce His fruit if we grow into a mature plant, but that takes nourishment—al the conditions necessary for growth must be present, including the stress.

The parable of the sower makes it clear that the same word is sown to four types of people, but the way the seed takes varies. Some hear but the devil quickly takes the word from their hears and salvation cannot and does not occur. Some hear and receive the word with joy but have no root to sustain and fall away when tempted. They wither with the stress and lack of moisture. Some receive the word and it never grows in them because the cares of the world choke it out—again there is no maturity. But, there are those who hear in hearts prepared by Him, and the seed grows to maturity, bearing fruit as they persevere in Him, the stresses of life turning them back towards Him. Because people like my husband and Mrs. Pete and Mrs. Brenda and Tom and Suzanne Tippett and Ann Hilyer and Sabrina and Ashley and many others along the way have poured (and are pouring) themselves into my life watering the word planted in my soul early, I am becoming more like Him.

And as I read 1 John, I can’t help but understand better that the seed planted in me only flourishes because of Him and the work He has done and is doing and will continue doing in my life. He prepared the soil of my heart; He gave me His Word; He watered my soul in dry times after it was stretched to breaking. He is the Word. The Word is the seed. I am growing into what He wants me to be. There is no other option. If I am His, I will bear His fruit, and I will pour this same nourishment into others that I have had poured into me.