This is a corny story. Shucks, you aren’t surprised by that. Every time you lend me an ear, I tend to get corny.
But this is about a different kind of corn. The real kind. The kind I saw growing in town. What’s amazing is that this corn stalk is growing in the gutter on one of the busiest streets in our city!
It was about 2 feet tall and even had an ear of corn growing on it – tassels and all. There it stood as cars whizzed by, growing as if it were in the middle of a farmer’s field.
Jesus, in one of his more famous parables, compares human hearts to soil. Some are hard, some are shallow, some are crowded with destructive things, and some are fertile and productive. We expect that when his message falls on fertile soil, it will grow and produce. What may surprise us is that, even in a hard heart, the Lord may find enough of a crack to put down roots.
You may have given up on your spouse. You may feel that there is simply no way that your marriage could ever change. Remember this stalk of corn. The same God-given power that makes a seed grow in the gutter can bring change to the hardest of hearts.
You may have given up on your unbelieving friend. Perhaps you’ve tried to explain the benefits of following Jesus. Maybe you’ve even warned of the fires of hell. But nothing has made a dent in a calloused heart. Remember this seed that found its way to soft soil beneath concrete.
It may be that the one you’ve given up on is you. Perhaps you’ve tried so many times to change only to fail every time. So, why bother to try again? Maybe others have told you that you’ll never amount to anything. Please, don’t believe them.
Believe instead in the one who promises “his incomparably great power for us who believe” (Ephesians 1:19). It’s the same power “which he exerted in Christ when he raised him from the dead” (v. 20). That power can be yours.
God seems to delight in taking things that die and bringing them back to life. It’s what he does with a seed when it germinates. It’s what he did in resurrecting Jesus. It’s what he wants to do in your life, in your marriage, and in your friends.
Comments