Our family has some favorite spots to visit in Maine in the summer and really all year long. When we drive in Maine and are away from Portland and the Maine coast, there are many farms. At different times of the year you can see the farmers tending the soil because they need to make it nutritious and ready to receive seed. It is plowed under in the late fall or early winter so that the old plants decay and become the nutrients for the next year’s crop. In spring, it is again plowed and readied for planting. Some years, the field is left to rest, to take a year off from planting so that it is ready to go for the following year. With farming, the quality of the soil is really important.

Soil is also the main event in today’s Gospel. In it, Jesus tells a parable of the sower planting seeds and how the seeds thrive or fail in different types of soil. The seed in this parable is God’s message to us in our lives and we are the soil. As soil, we are invited to receive the seed… but how ready and willing are we to receive it? 

In the first part of the parable, the seed is sown along a path where it cannot take root and birds come and eat the seed. That soil is too hard, and the seed cannot take root representing people who are also hardened, and the word of God can’t find a home in their hearts.

In the second example, seed is sown on rocky ground where there is thin soil. The seed does sprout, but when the sun comes out it withers and dies for lack of root. This represents a person who does receive the word of God but once tribulation impacts their life, they quickly fall away. 

Third, seed is sown among thorns which also sprouts and begins to take hold, but it is chocked out by the thorns. This represents people who also receive the word of God, but then worldly anxiety and the lure of wealth choke out God and they produce no fruit.

And finally, the seed that is sown on rich soil bears significant fruit representing one who receives the word of God and allows it to grow in their hearts. 

Soil – the soil is our ability to take God into our lives and have our relationship blossom, multiply and bear much fruit. We can allow God to work in our lives if we but let him.

So, what kind of soil are we? Are we the same soil today that we were 10 years ago failing to become more nutritious? Are we sometimes one soil and other times a different soil? I will admit it, I am different soils depending on my mood, my stress level, or the amount of peace or turmoil I am experiencing in my life. 

But can we do anything to become better soil, soil where God finds a home in our hearts, a place to grow and thrive? And can we be that soil more consistently? I sure hope so!

In our daily lives, we need to recognize what type of soil we are at that time. Are we having a bad day and God finds no home in our hardened heart? Are we stagnant, dry, and barren like poor soil? If we are not careful, these days can turn into weeks and months in our hardened state.

What can we do to become that fertile soil, one where with water and sun we encourage that little seed to blossom and grow into something beautiful to God and to all we interact with? We can make a change, we can get back to fertile, but it is up us.

We can start each day with an examination of where we are at that moment – are we stressed, anxious, or calm? Sometimes just recognizing the mood can help change it. Maybe we can find some peace before the day gets started to set ourselves off on the right path and thus improve our readiness for God.

At day’s end, we can reflect on our day to see if we had any missed opportunities to receive God into our hearts or any interactions we would like to handle differently next time.

And we can ask for his help! When we need to change a mood, when we backslide out of our rich soil state, when we are ready to change, he is there waiting for us to call him. He is not standing there with arms crossed pointing at our slip ups. No, he’s smiling, waiting for us to ask, wanting desperately for that rich soil to appear so that he can work wonders in our lives, forgive our missteps, cherish us and help us become that person about whom others say, “I want some of what they have.” 

That seed has already been planted in our hearts. What kind of soil are we today?