"Good Soil" [Module#167] (Luke 12:16)

The ground a certain man held dear,
Produced abundant crops one year;
He stored it in a bigger barn,
And thus became the stuff of yarn.

So what is yarn? Wool twisted ’round
To make a string, which then is wound
Into a ball, then knitted to
A sock, or sweater, scarf, or toque.

So yarn’s the stuff we used to make
Some product, story, book – create
Some larger entity of use;
Here, Jesus’ point, which he turned loose –

Into our minds for centuries,
That we might Father-God then please –
The fool who sought to pave the way
To life of comfort in his day.

Well, here’s a line which speaks to me –
“The ground produced” – in which I see
My world at last – the ground produced
Abundant crops once seed was loosed.

Gone was the hard-packed soil around;
Gone were diversions of the ground
To other projects – little left
To feed good crops – just pinch in cleft –

Of rock – crop burns off in the sun;
Gone weeds that choke new seeds – for sun
Can reach and strengthen this new crop –
Good seed, good soil, no weeds, no rock.

It takes a while for God to clean
Up the soul-soil in our lives – I mean
He gets there, but through process long;
Through legacies of hurt and wrong.

But here’s the rub – set new crop free
To multiply, or others feed;
Don’t store it up to feed yourself,
Or leverage to increase wealth.

I think of giver-finance thought
Which grows today, fed by the rot
Of useless concepts which now feed
New crops of thought to meet our needs.

“So turn it loose for others’ use;
When you pass on, there’s no excuse
For seeing good thought go to waste –
Plant seed, and let it grow – post-haste.”

Thanks Lord for this.

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