CALLED TO BE GOOD SOIL

“But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name,

He gave the right to be children of God, who were born, not of blood,

        Nor of the will of flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.

John 1:12, 13

Receive him…This takes my mind back to the parable of the sower. A sower went out to sow his seeds and the seeds fell on the soil of the earth.  It was the soil that needed to receive the seed in order for it to grow.  The soil needed to be Good Soil, loose enough for the seed to go deep, and free of thorns and debris so the seed could find its place in the soil and be able to grow into what it was meant to be, complete and whole, a hundredfold.

The seed is the word of the kingdom of God and we are the soil.  It is the soil that receives the seed, provides a nurturing place for the seed to grow and then continues to support what grows and bares fruit.  When most people look at a full grown garden they see the beautiful flowers, vegetables, and fruit and revel in the beauty and bounty covering the earth.  Few even see or comment on the soil.  The soil is the catalyst for the growth, but it remains unnoticed and almost invisible while the glory of the fruit it helped produce burst forth.

Contrary to conventional wisdom the Christian life is not about us; it’s about the kingdom of God and how we are to walk and live in it.

“God formed man of dust from the ground” (Genesis 2:7).

We are but the soil that God breathed life into, making us alive, in his image.  Could it be that his image is the invisible catalyst that brings life to things that bring beauty and fruit to this world; good and nutritious fruit of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self control?

Contrary to conventional wisdom the Christian life isn’t about us.  It is about the kingdom of God working in us to produce the good soil necessary for the seed that will grow and manifest the kingdom of God to the world.  Spiritual disciplines and practice are the tools we use to prepare ourselves as Good Soil.  They loosen up the soil, remove the rocks, thorns, and debris so the soil can nurture the growth of the fruit of the Spirit, produced so that God can be revealed to the world, the world he created and invisibly sustains.