I Come to the Garden Alone.

  “The Kingdom of Heaven is like a farmer who planted good seed in his field.”

  What makes seeds good? How would the farmer have known they were good or not?

  I’ve often driven past fields of grain where towering corn stalks are scattered throughout. It doesn’t seem possible they were mixed in with the wheat or canola seed. It’s most likely they are the result of a few corn kernels falling to the ground during the previous year’s harvest. They are the ones that were missed by Canada geese, wild turkeys or even deer who gleaned the field in the fall for these few choice morsels.

  Most wheat seeds today are patented. They are the result of careful, selective breeding, and genetic modification. Farmers no longer have the right to keep a portion of the harvest in order to plant it the next. Engineered seeds are property of the manufacturer.

  There is a lot of controversy about GMO (genetically modified) plants and the business practices attached to the manufacture of designer seeds. There is also swirling controversy around the restrictions placed on farmers. If a farmer doesn’t buy, and plant, the GMO seeds but a few blow into his field and end up growing there, he can be sued. It’s well worth investigating if you are interested.

  In Jesus’ day, no such restrictions existed. So how would a farmer get the best seeds to plant?

  He would know for sure they were good seeds if they came from his own fields. That is if he was meticulous in having his workers separate weeds from wheat during harvest. That is if his workers were meticulous in this task and didn’t cut corners thus allowing weed seeds to be mixed in with the grain.

  A farmer could purchase seed from a well known neighbor or traded goats for oats.

  I wonder…would a cheaper seed be cheaper because it was contaminated by weeds? Would some sly merchant have falsely advertised the sack of grain they had for sale? It would be prudent to ask around to see if anyone had previous dealings with this sort of seller. A bargain isn’t always a bargain.

  Planting good seed…

  The idea of “blind faith” has been cropping up time and again over the last several days.  I’ve found myself mulling over what it means.  Google informs me blind faith is defined as belief without true understanding, perception or discrimination. 

  Blind faith has no place for questions. It buries God’s love in ideology and religion.

  For me, the biggest determiner is blind faith is not relational.

  It’s a great, big, ugly, barbed wire fence separating us from the richest, most fertile “soil” in the universe: knowing the heart of God.

  Seed planting is part of a relationship man has had with the earth for millennia.

  Imagine the field you own is the Kingdom of Heaven...what fantastic, amazing, and awesome things might grow there! It's where you can plant one seed and the harvest will be thirty, sixty, a hundred times what was planted!

  Your Kingdom come, Lord, Your will be done on earth as it is in Heaven...Amen!