Shallow or Nah?

I love flowers.  I especially love planting them.  I love to see an empty section of dirt in a flower bed filled with beautiful flowers filled with an assortment of colors.  Even though I am often forgetful about it, I love to take care of my flowers. They say you should talk to your plants, and I definitely do that.  I encourage my flowers as I water them, and while I occasionally give them plant food, to stay strong until the next time they are watered, which may not be for a few days if I forget.  I have always wanted to plant sunflowers.  Sunflowers are such beautiful flowers, and they stand out so prominently in people's yards.  I finally planted one a couple of years ago.  I planted it on the side of the house so that if it didn’t work out for some reason, it would not be an eyesore. It was a test run.  I dug a shallow hole in the ground, threw a handful of seeds in the hole, and covered it up.  After a couple of months, to my excitement, the sunflowers grew.  They stood tall and beautiful on the side of my house.   I loved looking at them each time I watered them, and I was so proud.  Sadly, we had stormy weather one weekend, and my sunflowers were washed out of the flower bed. They were destroyed.   It was honestly kind of comical to my kids and me because we always laughed about my extremely brown thumb and they jokingly told me that the sunflowers would not last. 

I was reading the book of Matthew chapter 13 this morning and read the parable of the Sower.  To summarize it, Jesus tells the parable of a farmer who planted seeds in various environments. He planted them on a path and birds came and quickly ate them up.  He planted them on rocky land with little soil, and they quickly grew, but they did not last long because the soil was too shallow.  He planted some seeds amongst weeds and thorns and the plants were choked and destroyed.  Finally, the farmer planted seeds in good soil and the seeds produced a whole crop- hundreds of plants.  Jesus goes on to explain the meaning of the parable starting in verse 18.  He explains that the seeds represent the message of the kingdom.  When the message is received by someone who does not understand it, the devil will immediately snatch it away from them and they cannot keep it in their heart.  The seed thrown on the rocky ground represents someone who hears the word of God, and it fills them up, but only briefly, because they are not rooted in the word, and they have a shallow foundation.  To me, this represents the Christians who depend on hearing God’s word solely from others- by going to church or watching videos- but they are not studying the word for themselves.  They will quickly become distracted by the world and are prone to being easily deceived and, as the Bible says, they quickly fall away during times of trouble.  The seeds that fell amongst the thorn and weeds represents Christians who hear the word, but they are so caught up in being fooled by wealth and by worrying about life, that they cannot really hear it.  So, it goes in one ear and out the other- and they miss the true blessings (i.e., fruitfulness) that they can receive from it.  Finally, the seeds that were planted in good soil were clearly very fruitful.  Jesus said this represents the person who hears the word and understands it. When you hear it and truly understand it, it will bring great fruitfulness to your life. 

What does understanding look like?  When we understand something, we typically take action, right?  For instance, we understand that the environment is harmed by pollution and excessive use of resources, so we recycle, and we try to use less water or chemicals that harm the environment.  The same should go with reading the Bible. When we understand it, we should be following it.  Of course, it can be difficult, and Jesus is with us even when we fail.  However, if we are just listening to the word, not understanding, and not following it, we are just like the fruitless seeds in this parable.  We are just like my sad little sunflower that did not make it.  It was so fun and pretty for only a short time. When one little storm came along, it was gone.  The lesson here is that we should continue to study God’s word so that we truly understand- and follow- it, so that we can remain strong in our faith, in believing in his promises, no matter what comes our way.   I can tell you that I wish it would not have taken me this long in life to realize the importance of studying God’s word for myself.  I mean, I have always heard and believed that I needed to study it for myself, and I have read the Bible on and off for years.  However, I can tell you now that I have been a sunflower throughout my life, as my faith has occasionally withered away during times of trouble.   I have not relied on God’s word or promises always, and I’ve been fearful throughout much of my life, which has only resulted in worse problems.  When I was bored at college, instead of going to God’s word and praying about it, I decided I should transfer schools.  After I transferred, I got into the party scene and ultimately became pregnant during my sophomore year.  By no means am I saying that I regret having my baby, as my daughter is a blessing that I received despite my sin.  But can you see how it would have stopped a lot of heartbreak and difficulty for me had I understood the word of God- the message of the kingdom at that time in my life?  

The Bible is truly a manual for getting us through life, as it shows us the way to handle all situations.  Yet, in our stubbornness (laziness maybe?), we often choose to allow others to read it to us- to feed it to us- as if we are still babies.  It’s time to grow up, family!  I encourage you to make a plan today to study the Bible on your own and ask Jesus to help you truly understand it so that you will live a wholly fruitful life.