Seeds and sun: anticipating a season of growth

I stood in my yard last week with the full sun shining on my face. I closed my eyes and felt the warmth. My neck and spine lengthened as I stretched toward the sky. With a smile, I thought of spring and growth and the greening of the world.

Many of us are starting seeds for summer gardens. The sprouts and tender vines stretch toward the light. While the snow melts and our gardens thaw, we care for the young plants indoors, looking forward to the fruit they will produce in summer.

In the parable of the sower, Jesus compares the word of God to a seed, and we are the soil (Matt. 13). Christ taught that the sower’s seeds fell into all sorts of soil: the wayside, stony places, dry ground, thorny places, and good ground. The seeds only grew and produced fruit in the good ground.

In every age, gardeners appreciate the value of good soil. They fertilize, sow with care, weed, and water their plants because they desire a good harvest. They choose their seeds according to the plants they want to cultivate. A seed is small but contains the potential to become a strong plant, bearing life-sustaining fruit.

If the word of God is the seed, what is the potential harvest? “The word” is the gospel of Jesus Christ, taught by prophets and recorded in scripture. The gospel, or good news, shows us how to live so we can receive strength and blessings from God. The ultimate blessing is eternal life, living forever with God and Christ after the final judgment. But immediate benefits come when we “exercise faith unto repentance…and begin to call upon his holy name” (Alma 34:17). We can decide to change and ask God to forgive us. Repentance is the sweetest gift, and its continual application in our lives yields peace and joy.

Our spiritual growth depends on the choices we make when we hear God’s word. If our hearts are soft and we feel the spirit, then we can enjoy its fruits: “love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance” (Galatians 5:22-23). These feelings help us to recognize and act on the truth when we hear it. We cultivate our faith in Christ as we make time to study the scriptures and seek understanding. Our faith grows when we believe Christ’s promises, repent of our sins and try to follow him.

In Matthew 13, his disciples asked Jesus why he taught the people using parables. Why not just say what you mean? Jesus quotes a prophecy from Isaiah, saying “this people’s heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed…lest at any time they should understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them” (Matt. 13:14-15).

He is referring to the state of our hearts. Parables teach powerful truths to those who open their ears and hearts and minds to those truths. To unlock a parable, you must open your heart. To unlock the word of God and allow your seed of faith to grow, you have to act in faith: focus on the word of God, read and study scripture, and pray.

The prophet Alma also compares the word of God to a seed that we plant in our hearts. He teaches that we can nurture our faith, even if it is small. He calls on us to “awake and arouse your faculties, even to an experiment upon my words, and exercise a particle of faith, yea, even if ye can no more than desire to believe, let this desire work in you, even until ye believe in a manner that ye can give place for a portion of my words” (Alma 32:27). This process prepares our hearts to receive God’s word, just like turning the earth and fertilizing the soil readies our gardens for our seeds.

In the coming weeks, the ground will thaw, and we will be able to plant for another season. As we turn our faces to the sun, let us turn our lives toward the light of the Son. Jesus Christ is the source of all light. He is “the way, the truth and the life” (John 14:6). Cultivating our faith in him will bring us the greatest harvest of all.

Amity Condie has lived in Palmer for 15 years. She enjoys canoeing in meltwater and splashing in mud puddles with her kids, but looks forward to spring. She is a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.