As we near Thanksgiving, everything around reminds me of harvest. During this time of year and in this area of the country, the sugar cane fields are being harvested and the cane trucks are hauling sugar cane to the refineries. When I was in the Midwest, it was all corn and soybean trucks. The farmers’ hard work had paid off and they were reaping the benefits of their crops.
There’s a parable that Jesus told about a farmer who went out to sow his seed. As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up. Some fell on rocky places where there wasn’t much soil. Those seeds germinated and sprang up quickly because the soil was shallow, but when the sun came out, the plants became scorched and died. They withered up so quickly because they had no deep roots. Other seeds fell among the thorns, which grew up and choked the plants. Still other seed fell on good soil, where it produced an abundant crop. Jesus tells us the seed that fell on the good soil provided a crop that was thirty, sixty or a hundred times what was sown.
Have you ever planted grass seed? Right on the package is listed the percent of weed seed that is intermixed among the grass seed. Now why would you want to sow grass seed on your lawn that contains weed seed? Because pure grass seed is very expensive, so they sell a cheaper version that hasn’t gone through the very expensive process of removing all the weed seed. The theory is that we can sow the seed and once it’s grown, we can use weedkiller to eliminate the weeds.
I think about the seeds we sow in life and the harvests we enjoy. I think of seeds as kindness and compassion. If we don’t sow good seeds in terms of our words and actions, we probably shouldn’t expect the best of crops. If our seed included unkind words, selfishness, or pettiness, they will perform like grass seed that is contaminated with the seeds of weeds. The difference is there is no weedkiller we can use on the weeds we’ve sown in life. We have to live with what we’ve sown.
I also thought about Jesus’s parable and how we’ve probably scattered many seeds in our lives, but only the seeds that landed on good soil actually flourished. Does that mean we shouldn’t waste our time sowing our seeds to those we deem unworthy? Absolutely not! We shouldn’t judge others. In fact, we’re incapable of judging others because we don’t know what’s really going on in their heart. Only God knows that. A well-dressed, well-spoken person doesn’t always have the best intentions in their heart. On the other hand, the person who appears quite broken may have the warmest kindest heart of all.
Instead of judging people, we’re better off scattering our seeds of kindness to everyone. Some of those seeds will fall upon people who don’t care to hear or receive them. It’s our choice to sow seeds of kindness; it’s their choice whether or not to accept them.
What this really means is we should always sow our very best seed to everyone. That way we’re not starting out with contaminated seed that we’ll be unable to fix later and, since we’re unable to truly see what’s inside someone’s heart, we should scatter our seeds to everyone so that the seeds we’ve sown that end up on good soil (good souls) will reap us a harvest of life.
With Myasthenia Gravis, we don’t always have good days. We don’t always feel like sowing good seeds. In fact, some days are just downright miserable. We have to be careful, however, to always sow our best seeds to everyone. In so doing, some may fall on rocky ground and not grow, but some will fall on good ground and produce a harvest when the time is right.
When I’m not feeling good, it’s so easy for me to be grumpy. I have to remind myself that I’m constantly sowing seeds. The people I’m interacting with are bearing the brunt of how I’m treating them. I’m touching them with my words and actions, so I better use my best seeds. I better scatter the best of my seeds because I want my harvest to be as bountiful as possible. I want to be able to look back and know I’ve done my best with everyone.
I’m not naive. A few weed seeds will slip through now and then. I just hope I’ve sown enough good seed so the weeds aren’t all that someone remembers.
I expect my harvest will be bountiful this year and I realize that I have a lot of seeds to sow for next year.
I’m going to make them the kindest, warmest seeds I can.
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