Cultivating Our Soil

It's fairly well known that the Parable of the Sower, found in Matthew 13, Mark 4, and Luke 8, is really more about the soil than the sower. Some seeds fall on good soil and grow, while other seeds fall on bad soil and get parched, choked, trodden, or eaten. As the interpretation goes, we are the soil. Some of us are receptive to the knowledge and wisdom of God, while others are not.

Yet, something that I heard recently reminded me that we don't have to always stay whatever kind of soil we are now. We can change. Through diligent effort, we can change for the better, and if we're not careful, we can change for the worse. If our ground is stony or thorny, we can remove the stones and thorns. If our ground is hard, we can plow it. But if we don't water and weed our soil, it can become bad ground, even if it started good.

I'm grateful to know that we won't always remain the way we are now. People change. If we are wise, careful, and diligent, we can change ourselves for the better. We can cultivate knowledge and wisdom and weed out falsehoods and foolishness. We can become better soil if we choose to. I'm grateful to know that progress is possible and that I don't always have to remain the kind of soil that I have been.