One of the things I enjoy about summer is the opportunity to grow a garden and care for it and finally harvest it.  As I was gardening a few days ago I saw a tomato growing and was reminded of the parable of the sower in Mark 5.  In this parable Jesus describes a farmer sowing seed; some lands on the hardened dirt path, some among rocks, some among thorns and others in good soil.  The seeds on the path never start growing, the seeds in the rocks start but wither away quickly the seeds in the weeds are choked out by the weeds, but the seed in the good soil multiplies 30,60, 100 fold.  The different types of soils are us and the seed is the word of God.  If we are the good soil, we can multiply and bear fruit for others it hear the word.

Before I started gardening I used to think that multiplying 100 fold was simple hyperbole, but looking at that tomato, I realized I was very wrong.  A medium tomato probably has 50 seeds in it and a tomato plant should produce at least 25 tomatoes.  Think about that, every year the one seed is multiplying one thousand two hundred and fifty fold at minimum.  As the soil we can produce 1250 times what we started with every year, and we have a lot of years.

That doesn't come easily, that soil has to be tended, the plant has to get enough water and enough sunshine.  In our lives that water and sunshine comes from devotions, prayer, and reading God's word.  If we maintain our soil and live in Gods word, we can make a larger difference than we realize through our actions and words.  Think about this, we meet hundreds of thousands of people in our lifetime, if a percentage walk away wondering whats different about us and why Christ has changed us for the better, we can make all the difference in the world.