The Sower

"Would you like these?" a friend at church extended a small, zip-loc package to me containing something that at first looked like popcorn from a Crackerjacks box.  "They're hollyhock seeds," he explained.  "I don't grow them, but these blow from my neighbor's yard, and I thought I'd pick them up."

Oh! Now I could see the black seeds that had fallen from the dried flower pods.  "I love hollyhocks!" I exclaimed in delight.  Then I couldn't resist telling him I had read that hollyhocks used to be used as a  camouflage for outhouses!  The tall, colorful flowers were a screen hiding a humble necessity of yesteryear, disguising an eyesore by a pleasant view.  (One variety is even known as Outhouse Hollyhocks!)

I read a little about how to plant the seeds, and I learned that, even though it is late in the season, I can plant them by September and they can establish a root system for next year and may bloom next summer.  They usually don't bloom until the second season.

We had scriptures in church yesterday about the parable of the sower.  Jesus used this illustration of sowing on stony ground; by the wayside; in shallow soil; and thorny ground--and reaping no  harvest, to contrast to the seed sown in good ground.  The good soil returned 100 fold, sixty fold and thirty fold.

Our evangelist/speaker was emphasizing the importance of the Word of God.  "I was called to the hospital to see a patient who was about to pass away.  Her friend said he didn't know if she was a Christian or not, so he wanted me to visit her."  He went on, "I asked why he didn't think she was a Christian, and he said, 'Because she's mean!'"

On the way into the hospital, as he was hurrying carrying his Bible, a man sitting on a bench pointed and said, "Is  that the Book?"  Puzzled as to what  he meant, the preacher said, "What?"  The man answered, "The Word of God!"

Then on entering the elevator, he met two attendants pushing a gurney carrying a patient hooked up to IV fluids.  "Is that the Bible?" they cried. The minister told them yes, and that he was on his way to pray for a lady who was about to die. "We believe in that Book!" they said.

Finally he arrived at the room of the "mean" lady.  She had been thrashing about in pain and terror, unable to speak.  "Even though you can't talk, I'm going to pray for you and lead you to Jesus," the evangelist said.  He prayed for her to receive Jesus, and immediately she became peaceful and quiet.  Her friend in the room, a backslidden Christian himself, saw the change in her, and wiping tears from his eyes, said he was going to start back to church.

"What would have happened if I had not had the Bible with me and the Word of God in my heart?  I would not have been a witness to those people nor have kept a soul from Hell!"

The seed is the Word of God.  Though it was planted late in her season of life, the woman received it in good ground, and she would bloom in Heaven in that eternal Spring.