Several months ago, I saw a post on Facebook that included a picture of a beautiful ear of corn. It was much more colorful than the Indian corn that I have usually seen as part of Thanksgiving décor. This corn had kernels that were purple, blue, red, and gold. I copied the picture and quickly sent it to my nephew, the farmer in Nebraska. I asked him if this was for real or if it was something fake. He replied quickly in the affirmative that it is a real thing. He also included an article for me to read about it. I was amazed!
Several weeks ago I got a message from him requesting my address. I replied with the particulars and wondered why he was asking. A little over a week ago there was a small package from him in my mailbox. Inside was a seed packet for Glass Gem Corn. WOW! I couldn’t believe it!
What a fun thing to receive! I jotted off a note of thanks and asked him how to plant them. He replied and gave me some simple instructions. After purchasing some vegetable soil from the local Home Depot I went out and cleared out a sunny spot on the side of our house. I dug two furrows and planted 20 seeds, six inches apart per instructions.
A week to the day about 10 tiny seedlings began to appear!! I did a quick video and snapped a couple of pictures and sent them to my nephew. He replied, “tomorrow the rest will come up”. So the next day I went out to look and sure enough more seedlings had popped up!
WOW! I’m becoming a farmer!!
I can’t wait to see them get tall and produce that beautiful, colorful corn. Even if it’s not edible, it will be a thing of beauty and I hope to be able to share some with others.
My gardening skills have improved over the last number of years, mostly by trial and error. I have mostly planted flowers and bushes from containers bought at the local nursery. I can’t remember growing anything from a seed since childhood! So this new endeavor is really fun.
As I reflect, the seeds I have planted have perhaps been the kind that get planted into people. Jesus talked about seeds and planting them in good soil.
Once there was a sower who scattered seeds. One day he walked in a field scattering seeds as he went. Some seeds fell beside a road, and a flock of birds came and ate all those seeds. So the sower scattered seeds in a field, one with shallow soil and strewn with rocks. But the seeds grew quickly amid all the rocks, without rooting themselves in the shallow soil. Their roots got tangled up in all the stones. The sun scorched these seeds, and they died. And so the sower scattered seeds near a path, this one covered with thorny vines. The seeds fared no better there—the thorns choked them, and they died. And so finally the sower scattered his seeds in a patch of good earth. At home in the good earth, the seeds grew and grew. Eventually, the seeds bore fruit, and the fruit grew ripe and was harvested. The harvest was immense—30, 60, 100 times what was sown (Matt 13:1-3).
Soil is important. Cultivation is important. Weeding is important (and not much fun). Watering is important.
Jesus later explained the meaning of the parable to his disciples.
This is what the parable of the sower means. It is about the kingdom of heaven. When someone hears the story of the Kingdom and cannot understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away whatever goodness and holiness had been sown in the heart. This is like the seeds sown beside the road. You know people who hear the word of God and receive it joyfully—but then, somehow, the word fails to take root in their hearts. It is temporary. As soon as there is trouble for those people, they trip: those people are the seeds strewn on the rocky soil. And you know people who hear the word, but it is choked inside them because they constantly worry and prefer the wealth and pleasures of the world: they prefer drunken dinner parties to prayer, power to piety, and riches to righteousness. Those people are like the seeds sown among thorns. The people who hear the word and receive it and grow in it—those are like the seeds sown on good soil. They produce a bumper crop, 30 or 60, or 100 times what was sown (Matt 13:19-23).
In my new ‘role’ I hope to plant good seeds and cultivate them rightly. Both in the ground and in people.
Shalom!
P.S. Stay tuned to see how they grow!
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