Gardening with children has gone from a labor of love to a joy and a help. Still, none of them can recall what has happened to my brand new pair of gardening gloves. After an inaugural dirt clod fight, the rows and mounds in the freshly tilled garden plot slowly began to take form.

Listening to the children’s conversation while we were planting, I gathered that a couple of them were beginning to understand how seeds germinate. This got me thinking about our discussions of the parable of the seed in the gospel of Luke, which we were having as we prepared for planting day.

“And when a great crowd was gathering and people from town after town came to him, he said in a parable, ‘A sower went out to sow his seed. And as he sowed, some fell along the path and was trampled underfoot, and the birds of the air devoured it. And some fell on the rock, and as it grew up, it withered away, because it had no moisture. And some fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up with it and choked it. And some fell into good soil and grew and yielded a hundredfold.’ “

To continue to read the words of Jesus and His explanation of this parable, you can go here.

photo credit: Eva

photo credit: Alexander

How we pray that the Word of God be planted in the hearts of these little ones! That the seed may be received with joy and take root. That they may not fall away nor be chocked by the cares and riches and pleasures of life. May the soil of their souls and minds be good and honest. As parents, we sow, and we water, and we weed – and it’s hard work! But it’s God who gives the growth. Praise be the Lord!

photo credit: Alexander

So, after a long, sweaty day of back-breaking garden work (in which we never could find those garden gloves) we plopped under the big maple tree for family dinner. At some point in the day, we did find a forgotten bottle rocket in the bottom of a crate, however (probably left over from a July 4th celebration).

We finished 2017 planting day with a family picnic dinner and some firecrackers!

with love. Damaris