| The following is a childrens feature story:
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print on paper or overhead projector transparencies
The Growing Seeds
Mark 4: 26 – 29
Retold by Elsie Rempel, illustrated by Allison Froese
A long time ago, a crowd of curious listeners and friends gathered around
the master story teller named Jesus. The curious listeners and friends
gathered around Jesus, just like children gather for a story in church.
Jesus wanted to help people know and trust that God is in charge.
So Jesus told the curious listeners and friends this story. When you trust
that God is in charge, you are like a gardener who does what gardeners
do.
You scatter seeds on the ground so they can grow.
After you finish seeding, you go home and leave the seeds there lying
in the ground. The ground looks almost the same. Seeds are tiny, and people
walking by can’t always tell that anything has happened.
But a mystery is beginning. The gardener knows that the secret, mysterious
miracle of new plants is beginning and he goes to sleep. The gardener
sleeps, trusting the way God has with seeds everywhere. It’s a strange
thing! God’s good seeds even grow right under the noses of evil
governments.
Seeds are amazing! You can eat them and feel the energy they contain.
You can plant them too. With warmth and light from the sun, with moisture
from the soil, they start sending down roots. The roots keep them in place
and help them drink the nutritious waters God sends to the earth.
After the roots go down, the shoots come up, and up and up! They grow
lovely leaves and flowers. Did you know that even grass has tiny flowers?
Deep inside all those flowers, new seeds start to form.
The seeds keep growing after the flower falls off, until the gardener
goes out again and harvests the new seeds. We can see plants grow, and
if we’re really quiet, maybe we can even hear them grow. We know
seeds grow and make more seeds, but how seeds do this remains a wonderful
mystery.
We can also trust that God is the one who controls the growing of seeds.
God invites us to sow seeds too. That is a wonderful mystery!
What happens when we trust that God is growing seeds in each of us? ...in
the church? ...all over the world?
Great things can happen!
Jesus finished many stories by saying that we should use our ears to listen
and our eyes to see. Jesus wants us to understand. He wants us to really
listen and think.
I wonder how Jesus’ followers are like this gardener.
What kinds of things does Jesus want us to plant?
What should we do after we finish planting?
And how should we feel about leaving the tiny seeds we sow?
I’m so glad God is in charge of making the tiny seeds we plant
grow, aren’t you? I’m glad, because God understands the mystery
of making things grow, because it’s God’s very own mystery.
Thanks for using your ears to listen and your eyes to see.
We can all plant seeds of love, seeds of grace, seeds of joy and seeds
of peace. And, just like the gardener, we can trust God to make them grow
in ways we can’t even imagine.
©Mennonite Church Canada 2003 |
