Dear Christ Church Family,
Sometimes we can wonder if the seeds of life that we plant in others, or the good fruit we share to nurture and sustain them, has any lasting positive consequence. I was reminded today that such actions can and do condition the soil in those lives. Here’s a bit about that fourth soil type: The Open-to-Life Person trait.
Peace,
Rick+
Tuesday, May 19, 2020 RCL Daily Office Readings, Year 2
PM Psalm 78:40-72
Lev. 26:1-20
1 Tim. 2:1-6
Matt. 13:18-23
Saints Days
Matthew 13:23: What about Type Four, The Open-to-Life Person Trait? Yesterday, I summed up a response to the four types of Soil that Jesus’ Parable of the Sower addresses. I didn’t say much about Type Four, because I was intending to “dig” further into that person trait today. So, how does Jesus describe the Type Four Person Trait?
Like this: “But as for what was sown on good soil, this is the one who hears the word and understands it, who indeed bears fruit and yields, in one case a hundredfold, in another sixty, and in another thirty.”
I was getting all geared up to hold forth on the kind of “fruit” that a Type Four Person-Soil bears, when I read today’s Forward Day By Day. The author was thinking just what I was thinking, but they were saying it much better than I was even thinking it. Here is what that author said:
“Parenting is perhaps the greatest act of faith I’ve undertaken. Let’s be honest: In some ways, it’s a crapshoot.
In a week of fights, punishments, and long, heaving sighs, each of our children surprised us with sweet fruits. At the after-school program where our daughter interns, a boy came in barefoot, literally running from an abusive parent. After school, our son sat us down, explaining that a friend had the same tennis shoes for three years, and they were falling apart, and his parents didn’t have much money. On their own initiative, both of our children bought shoes for these individuals.
As Paul writes to the people of Corinth, one plants, another waters, but God gives the growth. Today, I’m thankful for shoes, acts of charity that found their roots in the hope of parents and their fruition by the grace of God.”
As I read this author’s recounting of the joy they took in seeing how fruitfully open to life their kids are becoming, I had to think of my own kids and their spouses, and the children in whom they now plant the seeds of life. As a parent, you do wonder if the seeds you plant in your kids will result in good fruit born out in their lives. Now that they are grown, I marvel at their openness to life, at how much faster they are to see a need to fill in others than I am myself, at how swiftly they look to help, even as I may be stalled out for a moment or so counting the cost.
So, today I am grateful and thanking God, the Sower, for the fourth type of soil that is in all of us; the soil that if nurtured can become the main trait about each of us; the soil that bears the good fruit that feeds the souls of others.
By the way, if you are looking within yourself for some good fruit to bless another with today, here’s a “shopping list” of what to look for, harvest, and share. It comes from Galatians 5:22-23: “Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.” This is the good fruit of your life that will make a lasting difference in anyone with whom you share.