A Mysterious Letter of Appreciation

Dear Mr. Neville,

   For our assignment this week, you said we could choose any topic or medium we wished. I have chosen to write you a letter of appreciation, and since you also said you liked surprises, I am not going to sign my name, leaving you to guess – at least for a little while - who I am.

   My dad had an interesting visitor this week; every Saturday morning at 10 o’clock precisely, this man stops whatever he’s doing, wherever he is, and indulges in what he calls ‘blue sky thinking’. This is his way of deliberately making time for those things for which he says he would otherwise never have the time. Am I really making any kind of headway in my career? If I changed, what would I rather be doing? What are the three biggest passions in my working life? Where do I see myself in five year’s time, three year’s time and one year’s time? Is what I’m doing now going to get me to where I want to be?

   This same man also spends every Sunday evening writing one well thought out letter of appreciation to someone who has helped him in one way or another along life’s way. I really liked that idea.

   So, last Saturday morning at exactly 10:00 am – as I had been looking forward to doing all week – I stopped what I was doing and the very first thought that came into my head was, ‘Be still and know that I am God’. This comforting passage from scripture would not have occurred to me if, in my very first lesson with you in Sunday school, you hadn’t told us of Jesus’ parable of the sower and the seed; hence this letter of warm appreciation.

   I do not have green thumbs but my mum does: the result is we have the most beautiful garden. The soil is so good that, if any seeds fall, they grow thirty, some sixty and some an hundred times more than mum planted in the first place. Unfortunately for my purposes, since I wanted as part of my assignment to emulate the sower, there was no way when mum sowed, that some seeds would fall on the path where the birds would come and eat them. Similarly, we have no rocky ground where seeds have very little soil, so they spring up quickly because the roots have no depth, only to wither away in the hot sun. And we certainly have no thorns into which some seeds might fall and be choked.

   A few streets over from where we live is an ‘eyesore’: that’s what mum calls the all but barren desert of a once-upon-a-time-garden. I asked mum and dad if we could go over there and see if the owners would let us sow some seeds on the paths, on the abundance of rocky ground, and amongst the thorns we knew grew there. Ever the friendly neighbor, mum readily agreed, but said she would like first to bake a small cake to take with us.

   While she was doing this, dad asked me if I had thought to sow a grain of wheat, a mustard seed and that of a fig tree. I asked him why. He explained that Jesus himself had said that, if a grain of wheat is planted, it will remain just a single grain, but if it dies, it multiplies greatly.

   Noting my look of interest, dad said Jesus had spoken another parable to His disciples likening the kingdom of heaven to a man who sowed good seed in his field. However, while everybody slept, someone came and sowed weeds among the wheat, then, when the wheat grew, the weeds appeared as well. The man’s workers asked him from where the weeds came, since he had sown only good seed. He replied that an enemy was behind this. The workers next asked if they should go and gather up the weeds, but the man said, no, because if you do, you are likely to tear up the wheat as well. It is better to let both grow together until harvest time when the reapers can first gather the weeds for burning, and then the wheat for storage.

   Jesus also likened the kingdom of heaven to a grain of mustard seed, dad continued, which a man sowed in his field. Such a seed is the smallest of all seeds, but when it is grown, it becomes a tree, large enough for birds to make their nests in it.

   As for the fig tree, when its branch is beginning to bud, you know summer is coming. Likewise, when you will see these things, you will know the kingdom of God is not far away.

   Before my dad could tell me more, mum came to show us the beautiful cake she had made and which smelt delicious. She said we should take it to our neighbors while it was still warm.

   Our knock on the door was answered almost at once by a beautifully dressed, supremely polite little girl who quickly ushered us into the sitting room. There she invited us to sit down and inquired if we would like tea. We declined but in turn asked her if she would like a piece of the cake we had brought. She said she’d be delighted to and would we excuse her for a moment while she fetched a tray. Upon her return, she cut the cake for us all with a most practiced hand, including an extra slice ‘for grandpa’. Excusing herself again for a moment, she quickly returned, effortlessly pushing grandpa in a wheelchair. Placing him in front of us, she sat down beside him, took his hand gently in hers and said she would like briefly to explain to grandpa the purpose of our visit, even though we hadn’t even mentioned it ourselves.

   Using sign language in the palm of her grandfather’s hand, she told him how we had come to ask if we might sow some seeds on the paths, on the abundance of rocky ground and amongst the thorns we knew grew here. Grandpa beamed with pleasure, responding by signally that we would also have to find some good ground for the grain of wheat, the mustard seed and that of the fig tree. This last would need to be sited with care to allow it to become a very big tree.

   Thoroughly mystified by these events, we allowed the little girl to show us the plots she had picked out for us, adding as she did so, that we were welcome to choose others if we so wished. We saw no need to do so and hence quickly finished sowing the few seeds we had brought with us.

   On re-entering the house, our little hostess bade us once more be seated while she explained to grandpa what we had done. She then went on to remind him, even though she told us quietly he really needed no reminding, that the parable of the sower and the seed is this: the seed is the word of God. Those on the path are the hearts of people who have heard the word, then the devil comes and takes it away, so that they may not believe and be saved. The seeds on rocky ground are those people who, when they hear the word, receive it happily, but because their belief has no depth, it eventually ceases to exist. As for the seed that fell among thorns, these are people who hear the word, but as they go through life, they are choked by cares, riches and pleasures, and their belief in God does not mature. (Here I was reminded of how the word of the Lord came by the prophet Haggai saying, “Think about what you have done: you reaped very little although you sowed very much”). And as for the seed that fell on good ground, these are people who, when they hear the word, hold on to it firmly and reap an abundant harvest as a result.

   When Jesus’ disciples asked Him to explain the parable of the weeds in the field, continued our delightfully learned little hostess, He told them He was the one who sows the good seed. The field is the world, the good seeds are the children of the kingdom of God, and the weeds are the children who belong to Satan. The enemy who sowed the weeds is the devil, the harvest is the end of the world, and the reapers are angels. As the weeds are gathered and burned in the fire, so will it be when the world comes to an end. Jesus will send His angels, and they will gather all evil people out of the kingdom to be thrown into a furnace of fire, where there will be very great consternation. At the same time, all godly people will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father.

   At this point, I recalled the Bible exhorting us in the words of Amos, who was among the herdsmen of Tekoa, to seek the Lord that we might live; to pursue good and not evil, to hate evil and love that which is good. Again, from the vision of Obadiah, God will soon come to pass judgement on the godless: whatever you have done, it shall be done to you, so on your own head be it.

   Looking grave for her tender years, the little girl said, when Jesus commented that, if a grain of wheat is planted, it will remain just a single grain, but if it dies, it will multiply greatly, He was speaking about His death. At that time, He went on to say, He would draw everyone to Him when He is lifted up from the earth. Similarly, His parable of the fig tree was a reference to His coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. Jesus went on to say that anyone who endures to the end would be saved.

   “If you bring children up the right way they will not depart from it when they are older,” continued the erudite little girl at her grandfather’s bidding. She then went on to say her grandfather, who by this time was winking at us mischievously, wanted us to know his son felt he was making headway in his career, but that if he were to change, there were other things he would rather be doing. The three biggest passions in his working life were, first, teaching small children about Jesus, for, he said, nothing gave him greater pleasure than to hear that children were walking in the truth. Second, seeing them come to knowledge of Jesus, and, third, creating an environment where this could happen.

   In five year’s time, he saw himself breaking ground on a huge Bibleland theme park so that the world would be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, in the same way that waters fill the sea. In three year’s time he would be congratulating the first graduating class from the children’s Bible study ministry he would found, remembering that the Lord has arrived to live among us, that He is an awesome Savior, that He will be so happy for us, He will renew His love for us, and all of us will be singing. In one year’s time a ministry would be established under the title, The Seedlings. Finally, the son felt that what he was doing now was going to get him to where he wanted to be. And if this all sounded a trifle ambitious, he would remind himself the Bible instructs us to bring our gifts and offerings to God’s house so that there will be food for everyone, whereupon God will open the windows of heaven and pour out so great a blessing, we won’t have room enough to contain it.

   Seeing our look of growing bewilderment, which by this time took in the events of the whole afternoon, our little hostess announced that the son of whom her grandfather had been speaking was her father. He taught religious education at a local community college, but at weekends he taught at Sunday school. His name was Mr. Neville.

   Sincerely in His name,

   ?

   PS I never allow myself to forget it was the Lord Himself who said rain and snow come down from heaven to water the earth, to cause grain to grow, to produce seed for the sower, and bread for the hungry. So it is with His word. He sends it forth, it is always fruitful, accomplishing all He wants it to, bringing prosperity everywhere He sends it.

For further reading: Psalms 46:10; Matthew 13:3-8, 18-23; Mark 4:3-8; Luke 8:5-8, 11-15; Jeremiah 4:3; John 12:24; Matthew 13:24-32; Mark 4:30-32; Luke 13:18-19; Matthew 24:32-33; Mark 13:28-29; Luke 21:29-31, 8:11-15; Mark 4:14-20; Haggai 1:5-6; Matthew 13:36-43; Amos 5:6, 14-15; Obadiah 15; John 12:32; Matthew 24:13; Proverbs 22:6; 3 John 1:4; Habakkuk 2:14; Zephaniah 3:17; Malachi 3:10; Isaiah 55:10-11