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I’m not sure I have a better analogy for parenting that scattering a bunch of random seeds and hoping to God that something will stick. It’s also what we do as grandparents, godparents, aunties or uncles. We want to share lessons with the next generations. We want to teach them so many things. We want those things to sink in, take root, go deep. We want our beloveds to thrive. But we’re mostly just scattering seeds. Not all are going to land. Nothing thrives all the time. And sometimes that really hurts.
Jesus’ parable of the sower calls us to the steady work of discipleship and tending the people and things in our path. We are planting seeds for a harvest that we may or may not see. The parable reminds us of one more truth: God is also – and ultimately – the sower. God is the one recklessly throwing out seeds of love and grace, seeming not to care where they land or even if the receiving place is worthy. The seeds are still sown. The seeds go everywhere. The seeds of God’s love remain. They are stuck to us, forever.
This message is excerpted from “Sticky sand and sowing seeds” by Lisa A. Smith in the July/August 2023 Gather magazine. Today is the Seventh Sunday after Pentecost. Today we commemorate Nathan Söderblom, Bishop of Uppsala, 1931.