Imagine That!

On a spring day, a week-end gardener showed an out-of-town visitor the packets of seed he had received through the mail. The rainbow colored packages promised huge, juicy, tasty vegetables of every kind. “This will be my best garden ever,” boasted the backyard farmer. Late that summer the same out-of-town friend dropped by for another visit. “How is your garden doing?” he asked. “I’m sorry to say it hasn’t done very well,” the gardener replied. “That’s a shame,” sympathized the visitor. “What’s the problem? Bad soil? Pests? Dry weather?” The gardener shook his head. “Then maybe your seed was the problem,” the visitor suggested. “Yeah, I guess the seed was the problem,” the gardener admitted. “You see, I never got around to planting any of it!”

Getting the seed into the ground can sometimes be the hardest part of farming, and that was especially true in first-century Israel. In the days of Jesus, eking a harvest from the land was a back-breaking struggle. The…