Sowing Seeds

On this beautiful spring day, I am planting seeds. As I sow, I wonder. what will come up? What will take to this soil? Will my plants be strong and bountiful? Or weak and straggly. Will I remember to water? Or water too much? At the end, will I have a bountiful harvest or a bitter one?

I ponder the many gardening parables: how does a child who has never sown understand the tale of the mustard seed? Or of how from a tiny seed something large and powerful can grow? Or again, what does one raised away from gardens really understand about vines? About pruning for the good of the vine? About rich or bitter harvests?

Having always been an avid gardener, from a family of avid gardeners, I know what a hard pruning can be. Cutting down almost to the root, in order to stimulate new, fresh growth. It can be a painful choice for the gardener - will the plant survive to flourish anew? Or will it simply die?

How natural then to take this process and apply it to spiritual matters! Is God with you only when you have earthly blessings? Or is He perhaps with you in a more special way when He is pruning you in preparation for new growth?

"I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in Me that beareth not fruit He taketh away; and every branch that beareth fruit, He purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit." - John 15:1-2