This is a good time of year to think about what growing plants can teach us. Many people plant gardens in the spring and wait eagerly to see how much of what they planted will eventually grow and produce flowers or vegetables. Along about now those gardens should be well on their way, but in many cases nothing is ripe yet. We are in a waiting time between planting the seed and seeing the results. In addition to seed and soil and rain, growing plants need time.
Time is the ingredient that gardeners often forget.
And the same thing is true in our faith life. The story of the sower in Mark makes the same point. A farmer scatters seed on the ground and then waits for it to grow. Some falls on shallow soil, pops up quickly and withers just as fast when the sun gets too hot. Birds eat up the seed that falls on the hard soil of the path.