The Lord gives the most absolutely perfect illustrations in Scripture. Let me tell you a story that hit me the other day while mowing and show you what I’m talking about.
Many years ago, we planted sunflowers with our girls one spring and watched them grow into these magnificent and colorful plants. In the early spring of this year, I thought that this would be a great memory to create with our grandkids.
The spot had to be chosen for the sunflowers. Before the kids got to the house, I dug up the ground, removed the sod, and tilled the area to be planted. Very carefully, I staked the plot to ensure the line was straight and perfectly measured out the distance between seeds. According to the directions, the seeds were just supposed to be spread in the soil, then thinned once they grew. I’m a bit more OCD about these things and decided to do the thinning before they were even planted.
When the temperature was right, the kids and I went out to the spot, and I gave careful instructions of how and where to plant them. To their credit, they really did a great job, listening and following what I told them to do.
The next couple of weeks were spent dutifully watering dirt. We knew the seeds had been planted but nothing was growing yet. The kids carried out their watering cans or took the garden hose and faithfully soaked the soil.
After a while, we began to see sprouts coming through the ground. It was exciting to watch them grow and eventually, we got to see the nice yellow heads open up. This was definitely exciting to watch and especially to watch the kids going out to check on their work.
1 Corinthians 3:5-7 says, “Who then is Paul, and who is Apollos, but ministers by whom ye believed, even as the Lord gave to every man? (6) I have planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the increase. (7) So then neither is he that planteth any thing, neither he that watereth; but God that giveth the increase.” We didn’t grow the flowers. We put seed into prepared soil and watered it. God provided the sun and the nutrients in the soil. God gets the credit and glory for growing the sunflower.
Interestingly, though they were planted at the same time, they didn’t all grow the same. A couple of the sunflowers are tall-ish. The rest are varying heights.
2 Peter 1:5-8 says, “And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge; (6) And to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness; (7) And to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity. (8) For if these things be in you, and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.” Spiritual growth is a process. We’re not all at the same level. There’s nothing wrong with that. What’s wrong is when we stop growing!
Finally, all the sunflower seeds were treated the same, watered the same, exposed to the same amount of light, etc. However, we have some that sprung up and quickly withered. They are still there, shriveled as they may be. Others didn’t grow at all and we have gaps.
In the final moments of this devotional, read the familiar words of another sower of seed who had similar results as we had with our sunflowers. And take the opportunity to see God’s truth illustrated in His Word as well as in life.
“And he spake many things unto them in parables, saying, Behold, a sower went forth to sow; (4) And when he sowed, some seeds fell by the way side, and the fowls came and devoured them up: (5) Some fell upon stony places, where they had not much earth: and forthwith they sprung up, because they had no deepness of earth: (6) And when the sun was up, they were scorched; and because they had no root, they withered away. (7) And some fell among thorns; and the thorns sprung up, and choked them: (8) But other fell into good ground, and brought forth fruit, some an hundredfold, some sixtyfold, some thirtyfold. (9) Who hath ears to hear, let him hear… Hear ye therefore the parable of the 
sower. (19) When any one heareth the word of the kingdom, and understandeth it not, then cometh the wicked one, and catcheth away that which was sown in his heart. This is he which received seed by the way side. (20) But he that received the seed into stony places, the same is he that heareth the word, and anon with joy receiveth it; (21) Yet hath he not root in himself, but dureth for a while: for when tribulation or persecution ariseth because of the word, by and by he is offended. (22) He also that received seed among the thorns is he that heareth the word; and the care of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, choke the word, and he becometh unfruitful. (23) But he that received seed into the good ground is he that heareth the word, and understandeth it; which also beareth fruit, and bringeth forth, some an hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty.” (Matthew 13:3-9, 18-23)
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