Mark chapter four includes a series of parables about sowing seed and growth.

And I daresay one the challenges in the ministry is that we do not always see the results of our sowing. To be sure, there are times when you get to see an almost immediate result of your labors (and I smile as I think about the young boy from our school who I had the opportunity to baptize AND who shook my hand with Cheeto-greased fingers). And there are times when you get to see the result of a seed planted long ago (I just had an opportunity to walk someone through the catechism again who had been away from it for twenty-plus years—and how much he remembered!) But for every visible result there are surely many more sowings of the seed where we do not see how this all pans out.

Two words of encouragement for you this day. First—the mustard seed seems so small and insignificant, but look out when it is planted! Thus the Word that goes out from your mouth; in your devotions; in your lessons. What will this puny little word do in the ear of a three year old? What will this puny little word do in a world with all of its heartache and all of its problems? What will this puny little world do when it appears it just isn’t working? Mark 4 assures you: God’s Kingdom will come and God’s will be done through the sowing of that little seed.

And a second encouragement, to one who is blessed to sow the seed. You’re first and foremost blessed not in your sowing but in your hearing. This very day is another day of his grace; another opportunity to hear; to be strengthened; to find comfort and hope. Today is another day to give thanks for that gospel seed which continues to grow in you!