Apple Time

…Behold, a sower went out to sow. Matthew 13:3b

It’s time to visit the apple orchards. Time to debate the taste of the best apples and cider. Time to make apple butter and apple jelly. Time to eat a fresh picked apple and tell the tales of Johnny Appleseed sowing seeds across America.

 But have you taken time to look a little deeper? Slice an apple across the center. Count the seeds in the star. Plant a few seeds. Maybe you’ll get your own apple tree. Just wondering, how many apples do you think might come from one seed?

Jesus told a parable of a farmer who went out to sow his seeds. Some fell on hard ground and never came up. Others fell on stony ground and thorny ground. They survived a little while and then died. But the seeds that fell on good ground produced lots, some 30 times, some 60 times, some 100 times more than was sown.

Telling others about Jesus is much like planting seeds. You never know what the witness you give today may one day produce. An apple tree takes years to produce but then it produces for many years. Are there generations of Christians in your family? Who planted the seed in your heart?

 Anyone can count the seeds in an apple but only God can count the apples in a seed.

- Robert Shuller.