Lesson 388: "Burying Nuts"
Have you ever seen a squirrel dig up the nuts he so frantically buried all spring? Neither have I but I have noticed (irritably I might add), that I have a “crop” of tiny pecan trees sprouting up in my yard each year. After a bit of research I found that the squirrels are not “storing” nuts but rather they are “planting” them. This planting assures them a future of fruit bearing, life sustaining security.
Jesus tells us a story about planting seeds, not storing them. Like the nuts that simply fall from the tree and go unnoticed and rarely reproduce, our seeds (telling the Gospel of Christ) that we allow to merely “drop” do not reproduce. The seed that fell by the road is one who hears the message but does not understand. The seed that fell on rocky ground is one who accepts but does not let it go deeply into his life. And the seed that fell among thorny, weedy ground is the person who hears but lets the world around him stop the production of fruit.
Like the squirrel who digs a hole and plants the nut firmly in the ground, we Christians should be planting “good seeds” so that others will hear, understand, grow and produce, sometimes a hundred times more (Matt. 13:18-23). After we plant, another may water which is the work God has given to us to do and then God makes the seed grow (1 Cor. 3:5-9). The maturing of this cultivated seed produces the fruit of the Spirit (Gal. 5:22-25) which in turn is passed on to others so they might believe and call on the Lord for salvation. The tricky thing is that after planting the seed and watching the “nut” grow, then someone must tell them about Jesus and before someone can tell them they must be sent (Rom. 10:13-15).
It is not my intention to call anyone a “nut” but we could learn from the squirrel and mostly from the parable of Jesus. Do not store up treasures on earth (Matt. 6:19) but plant a seed for the future! Nourish someone into the Kingdom of God!