The Sower's Seeds

A sower went out to sow his seed.

Luke 8:5

How many fields would a sower sow?  

Over a lifetime of sowing and harvesting and sowing again; of an endless cycle of backbreaking effort and anxious waiting, how many times would he model the words of Jesus?

In reading the parable, I always think of a single planting, of a one time shot or you've missed it gift.  But is that really how his listeners would have heard it?  

Did they see a farmer, laboring on a distant hill as Jesus taught? Did they watch him trudging up one row and down another, flinging the hopes of his family across the soil?  

They would have seen him in the light of a lifetime of work, of father passing on the land to son, of good years and bad and the endless renewal of hope. 

If the seed is continually sown, then the harvest is new every season.  It's not enough to hear a single call, to check off a box and move on.  

The sower's seeds, forever fresh, demand a fresh response.