by Pastor Mark Moreno

The Power of Grace

I assume it happened in the night. One morning, I went into a guest room in our house to feed some fish and I saw one of my wife’s plants broken on the floor. She was out of town and I was doing my best to keep all the plants watered and the animals fed. So I cleaned up the mess and put the soil and the plant into an unbroken pot.

I don’t have a green thumb, so I didn’t expect the little plant to make it. But amazingly enough, a little bit of sunshine and water did the trick. I think that we are like that little plant in many ways.

We grow where we are planted, that is until something happens, either good or bad. Maybe our pot gets moved or broken. Maybe the sun doesn’t shine on us anymore. Perhaps it is the driest of seasons.

Jesus explains his parable of the sower in Matthew 13:23 by saying,

“As for what was sown on good soil, this is the one who hears the word and understands it. He indeed bears fruit and yields, in one case a hundredfold, in another sixty, and in another thirty”.

We all want to be in good soil, we all want to bear fruit and grow. Thanks be to God that it is Jesus that makes growth out of brokenness. It is Jesus who proclaimed that He is the vine and we are the branches (John 15), so all of our growth comes through Him.

Maybe it was one of our cats that knocked that pot down (I suspect it was our kitten Bijou). Maybe a dog bumped into the table. I suppose it could have even been a rowdy fish in the tank! I may never know why it happened, but I know it happened. So it is in our lives when something goes wrong: We don’t usually know the why but we know the hurt.

I pray God holds you and grows you even when there are broken shards all around you. I pray that you find yourself in good soil and a fruitful faith that blesses others around you!

Copyright Family of Christ Lutheran Church, Colorado Springs, Colorado