Cultivating

And so we begin. As with any new project, new adventure, new relationship, new event, it is always best to cultivate. We must study the soil conditions, then cultivate and work the soil. This step is paramount to a good harvest -- the sweetest fruit or the most beautiful rose. In our garden it is now time to cultivate. The earth in early April is rich and moist and easy to cultivate -- even with bare hands. If we wait too long, the soil becomes harder, more packed and difficult to till. And in untilled soil weeds multiply faster than popping corn.

The garden metaphor is a brilliant metaphor for nearly everything in life. What are we all trying to grow? A relationship? A personal faith? A new career? A new project? In all cases, we must consider how and in what conditions it will be rooted. Is the soil ready? Have you cultivated? Is it the right growing season? Consider the soil in all that you do.


Then He told them many things in parables saying, "A farmer went out to sow his seed. As he was scattering his seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up. Some fell on rocky places, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly because the soil was shallow. But when the sun came up the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root. Other seed fell among thorn which grew up and choked the plants. Still others fell on good soil where it produced a crop a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown. Matthew 13:3-8 NIV