Do you ever feel like you’re covered up? I don’t mean covered as to be kept warm and comforted, but covered up by life in such a way that you are somehow trapped, or limited, or bound up in some way from what you really want?

And, sometimes, isn’t the covering like dirt, whatever dirt may mean? (The world?)

As my Carol would say: “Here’s the deal!”

Jesus often taught in parables, to illustrate spiritual concepts in practical ways. He didn’t teach this way just to be clever or colorful, but to be helpful. Jesus wants us to be set free! Jesus wants us to learn His Ways and then be able to follow Him to both freedom from bondages, but also to the abundant life, in the Spirit.

Luke 8:5-15 has the wonderful parable of the sower and the seed. You’ve probably read it a bunch, and heard it expounded upon before. Today, however, I saw it in a new way. For me, an epiphany, if you will, and I hope for you too.

Think about a seed. What does a seed want, or need? A seed needs to be covered in dirt, doesn’t it? What a strange thought, that the dirt somehow protects the seed, which really wants something better…light! The seed will sit in the dirt for some period of time, and then begin to seek the light, begin to grow, even while covered in dirt. Some water helps. But the seed pushes onward, upward, to punch out of the dirt into the light!

I realize there are all sorts of ways this could be reinterpreted, probably much better than I ‘m doing here, but the point is that even though we’re covered in dirt, we are seeking the light, and that our growth WILL result in a breaking forth! Jesus then gives us sort of a follow-up parable in Luke 13:19 about the mustard seed, and teach us that it is like that with FAITH. Faith is like a seed, He says, which even if covered in dirt (the world) can break forth into the light of day and bear fruit!

Covered in dirt. Seeking the Light. Faith breaks forth.