A young man had a misunderstanding with his girlfriend that threatened their relationship. He tried to talk to her but nothing worked. After many futile attempts, he remembered that she liked dark red roses, so he bought one, which was all he could afford. The florist put some ferns around the long-stemmed rose and wrapped them in nice thin paper.
Feeling quite romantic, the young man went to her home and placed the rose in front of her door. When she came home, as lovely as ever, his heart skipped a beat. She opened her purse, took out her key, unlocked the door and stepped inside never noticing the beautiful rose lying on the doormat.
How might you have felt had you been in the young man’s shoes? Perhaps you have had the experience of talking to someone about something important to you yet feeling like your words are falling on deaf ears. If so, you have an inkling then of how God feels at times. Day after day, God gives us signs, trying to get our attention: a flower, a thought, a dream, a child, a friend, or a loved one. And day after day, many of these signs are ignored like seeds blown away. How often do we notice them and stop in our tracks and acknowledged that God is in our midst?
In the gospel, some disciples had begun to write Jesus off. He responds to the situation with a parable they could relate to. Using different soils as examples, he explains that many signs God gives us in our lives remain unseen, unheard, unfelt, or untouched. God’s word and presence doesn’t penetrate every one of us to the same degree or in the same way, like seeds that don’t take root in certain soils.
Some people have so hardened themselves that God’s word merely bounces off their Teflon slick surfaces. They pay no attention to what God offers them. Others respond with an enthusiastic faith that wears thin sooner or later so they drift away. Still others surround themselves with so much distracting clutter, figuratively or literally, that God’s word easily gets lost in the jumble. Consequently they do not have an intimate relationship with God either.
The rich soil Jesus speaks of describes the hearts of those open to hearing and understanding the word of God; they let his word take root in their lives. They are open to hearing what God has to say. Unlike the girlfriend who failed to notice the dark red rose, the receptive person, filled with grace, sees God in numerous ways and regards this relationship as far more important than anything else. They know that their faith, like a good garden, has to be tended if it is to thrive. That is a kernel of truth many fail to realize.
A business executive hired a woman with a doctorate in horticulture to landscape his estate. Because of his job and frequent trips, the owner kept emphasizing the need for her to create a garden that would require little or no maintenance on his part. He insisted on automatic sprinklers and other labor saving devices. She interrupted him, saying, “There’s one thing you need to deal with before we go any further. If there’s no gardener, then there is no garden.”
Likewise, there are no labor saving devices to help you grow a garden of spiritual virtue. Becoming a person of spiritual fruitfulness requires time, attention, and care. Yet many of us act like that business executive. We are busy during the week, preoccupied with numerous tasks and social events but somehow we cannot find much time for spiritual growth. Each Sunday we come to church for an automatic sprinkling of holy water, feeding off the energy of those around us and the Eucharist but by mid week we find ourselves running dry.
When we are reluctant to seek or fully appreciate God’s presence or understand his word, the evil one, as Jesus cautions, can take advantage of our vulnerability and lure us into sin. In moments like those we are too distracted to notice how God is trying to get our attention. Are we listening or are we like the girlfriend, who has eyes and did not see; and ears and did not hear? What sort of soil are you and what kind do you want to be?
Jesus is giving this parable as a pep talk to encourage us to tend our “garden.” Imagine the impact we Christians could have on the world around us if everyone here would take God’s word to heart and tried to understand his directions for bringing about his kingdom in our midst.
The experience of being in touch with God is known as grace. God seeks to enter our lives to free us from the grips of sin but the choice to accept his grace is ours alone to make. The more grace filled we are, the more likely we are to resist the evil one who constantly throws temptations at us. Believing in God isn’t enough. As with any friendship, if we want to keep this one with God alive and intimate, then we must also do our part to remain in touch with God.
Like water that quenches our physical thirst, God offers grace to satisfy our spiritual thirst. That thirst is quenched when we notice what God has to say to us personally through scripture, prayer, and the teachings of the church.
Emily Dickinson once observed “A word is dead when it is said, some say. I say it just begins to live that day.” May God’s word live always in your heart so that you will notice the many roses God has been leaving on your doorstep.