2026 Reading Plan Reflections - Day 18

When Jesus tells the parable of the seed and the soils, it’s easy to fixate on the ground—the path, the rocks, the thorns, the good soil—and start sorting people into categories. Who’s receptive? Who’s resistant? Who’s a lost cause?

But that may not be the main point.

Maybe we should consider the farmer...

Any sensible farmer knows you don’t waste seed. You don’t throw it on hardened paths or rocky ground or into choking weeds. Seed is precious. Food is survival. Careless scattering would look foolish—maybe even irresponsible.

And yet, this farmer sows anyway.

If the seed represents God’s mercy and grace, then the parable reveals something profound about God’s character: God is lavish. God is generous. God is not stingy with grace or selective with mercy. God scatters the seed broadly, trusting that some of it—by grace—will take root and bear fruit.

This parable doesn’t let us off the hook. God’s generosity invites a response. The seed is freely given, but the soil still matters. Grace is not earned, but it can be received—or resisted.

The question, then, is not only what kind of soil am I today? It’s also how will I respond to the generosity already given?

Examine your soil honestly. Where might your heart be hardened, distracted, or crowded right now? Name it before God.
Receive before you produce. Don’t rush to “bear fruit.” Sit with the truth that grace has already been sown in you.
Reflect God’s generosity. Where can you sow grace freely—without calculating outcomes or protecting your own “resources”?
Pray this simple prayer:
“Lord, till the soil of my heart. Let what You’ve already given take deep root.”

God is not concerned with the idea of "wasted" seed. Jesus came to transform lives. Stay open. Stay receptive. Let the growth come in its time.