Mark 4:1-9
Again he began to teach beside the sea. And a very large crowd gathered about him, so that he got into a boat and sat in it on the sea, and the whole crowd was beside the sea on the land. 2 And he was teaching them many things in parables, and in his teaching he said to them: 3 “Listen! Behold, a sower went out to sow. 4 And as he sowed, some seed fell along the path, and the birds came and devoured it. 5 Other seed fell on rocky ground, where it did not have much soil, and immediately it sprang up, since it had no depth of soil. 6 And when the sun rose, it was scorched, and since it had no root, it withered away. 7 Other seed fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked it, and it yielded no grain. 8 And other seeds fell into good soil and produced grain, growing up and increasing and yielding thirtyfold and sixtyfold and a hundredfold.” 9 And he said, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”
God’s deep hope is that people will receive his word, that it will grow in their hearts and lives, and that it will produce more grain: thirty, sixty, one hundred times as much as was sown. We know this doesn’t always happen: Jesus’ parable of the sower shows this to be true. Some seed falls in rocky, thorny, or along the path. Some seed springs up for only a while. Sometime the birds eat the seeds. But when the good seed is sown in good soil – ahh – that’s the Kingdom win!
The idea is that somehow the truth of God’s word, the message of his Kingdom, will gain entry into your heart and mine, and that it will flow from us to others: that we will sow the seeds of faith that we have ourselves received. We have the secret of the Kingdom revealed to us: it is Jesus’ reign and his grace and truth impacting people’s lives. Our calling, now, is to let that reign overflow into the lives of our family, friends, and neighbors – perhaps even our enemies.
Rather than hiding your celebration of CHRISTmas, wishing people, “Happy Holidays,” why not make a point to say, “Merry Christmas?” Choose Christmas cards that have Scripture on them. Nothing wrong with Santa – he’s a Christian saint after all – but point beyond him to the Christ Child: There’s totally nothing wrong with him. That’s the true seed that’s been sown in your heart. Let it produce a bumper crop of grace and truth in Jesus!
David Bahn - Reflections 
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