Back in the day when I taught Kindergarten, I taught the children a song about plants.  It was sung to the tune of "Frere Jacques," and the words went like this:
Plants need water (Plants need water)
Light and soil (Light and soil)
So they'll grow (So they'll grow)
So they'll grow (So they'll grow)

The poetry leaves a lot to be desired, but the kids got the message--there are certain things that seeds absolutely can not do without if they are to become grown, healthy, productive plants.  Here is another microcosm of the Kingdom of God.  It's amazing to me how God teaches us the great lessons in the Kingdom through simple observation of the world He made!

As in the song, people need spiritual water, light and soil to become what God has created them to be.  There are several symbols in the Bible to represent the Holy Spirit.  One of those symbols is water.  "Whoever believes in me, as the scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within," (John 7:38); "Whoever drinks the water that I give him will never thirst again.  Indeed the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life" (John 4:14); "for we are all baptized by one Spirit into one body . . . and we are all given one Spirit to drink" (I Cor. 12:13); "This is the one who came by water [spirit] and blood [humanity]--Jesus Christ.  He did not come by water alone, but by water and blood and it is the Spirit who testifies, because the Spirit is truth" (I John5:6).  Have you ever opened up a dry butter bean?  Inside you can see the tiny plant-shape--but it's still only a potential plant.  If you soak that butter bean in water, very shortly the tiny plant will spring out of its shell.  We all contain potential gifts that God has placed within us.  Those gifts come out when we immerse ourselves in the Holy Spirit.

A plant also needs light, the sun, or we might cleverly say, the Son.  The first chapter of the gospel of John says in verses 1-5: "In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.  He was with God in the beginning.  Through Him all things were made; without Him nothing was made that has been made.  In Him was life and the life was the light of men.  The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it."  Jesus, Himself, said, "I am the light of the world" (John 8:12 and 9:5).  As plants need sunlight to produce chlorophyll for their sustenance, we need Jesus Christ who is in us the "bread of life."  He brings the spiritual food for our eternal life.

Then comes the soil.  The baby plants need a place to sprout roots and become trees.  You know where we're going--the parable of the sower and the seed.  Jesus teaches that the seed, or the word, is scattered, and some falls on rocky places, some among thorns, some among shallow soil, and some on good fertile soil.  Of course, bad things happen to the seed that goes anywhere but the good, fertile soil.  The soil is the heart of a person, the literal translation of the word, either in the Old Testament (Pharaoh's heart was hardened) or the New Testament ("It was because your hearts were hard) is the "thoughts and feelings."  A farmer prepares the ground for planting by breaking up the clumps and removing the stones.  God says He will remove a heart of stone and give us a heart of flesh.  So we pray with David, "Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me."  Break up my clumps and remove my hard-heartedness, make me fertile for Your seed. The nutrients that rise from the soil through the roots are what travel to the outermost branches and leaves of a tree.  If the nutrients are bad or inadequate, the crop of the tree will reflect that. 
 
So say we have a healthy tree growing in good soil, knowing that we have a promise of good fruit, but we're not seeing much. I remember when I was pretty young, I liked planting flowers in my back yard. Unfortunately, I was not very patient.  After I planted the seeds, watered the seeds, saw the sunshine hitting the soil where the seeds were sown, for some extended long period--like two days--and could see nothing happening, I tended to dig around a little with my fingers just to "make sure" something was happening.  What I usually found was that tiny roots had begun to work their way down out of the seeds and into the soil. Even though I couldn't see it, growth was taking place just as it should.  The flowers would have been in trouble if long stems and heavy buds had come up before they had something to secure and anchor them to their life-giving soil!  Ecclesiastes 3 tells us that "To everything there is a season," and God Himself has ordained those seasons in the life of a plant as well as in the life of a human being; and just like that tree can't decide on its own when it is time to bud, flower, or produce fruit, but has to wait for the proper season of the year, neither can you and I decide when our fruit should come and particularly when we should see the fruit of another.  God is always at work in His children. "He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion" (Phil. 1:6).  God does have all things under control--we can trust Him.

I want to be like the tree in Psalm 1: "Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the ungodly or stand in the way of sinners or sit in the seat of mockers.  But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night, He is like a tree planted by the streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither.  Whatever he does prospers."

Hosea instructs, "Sow for yourselves righteousness, reap the fruit of unfailing love, and break up your fallow ground; for it is time to seek the Lord until He comes and showers righteousness on you" (10:12). 

Heavenly Father, please break up the fallow ground of my heart, pour out Your Holy Spirit upon me, and let me bask in the Light of Your Son, so that the gifts You have planted in me will come forth in due season to be used by You for the work of Your Kingdom.  Amen