Spring Surprise

Matthew 13: 1That same day Jesus went out of the house and sat by the lake. 2Such large crowds gathered around him that he got into a boat and sat in it, while all the people stood on the shore. 3Then he told them many things in parables, saying: "A farmer went out to sow his seed. 4As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up. 5Some fell on rocky places, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly, because the soil was shallow. 6But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root. 7Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants. 8Still other seed fell on good soil, where it produced a crop—a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown. 9He who has ears, let him hear."


Several years ago, I dug up what was left of the previous owners' flowerbed around the mailbox. One of the things I dug up was some kind of bulb that came up every year but never flowered. I dumped the refuse, including the bulb, in an unused area of my garden where it somehow found a way to live. It sent shoots out every year, failed to flower, and then died back about mid-summer.

Eventually, I needed the spot where I had put my pile of refuse, and in a fit of enviro-friendliness, I threw it onto a new compost pile.

Last year that bulb found a way to survive and sent up shoots in the midst of my compost pile. Even after turning the pile several times, it found a way to green up.

Today, I came home early from a teacher workday to hear shouts from the backyard. Good, I thought, the kids are playing outside. I went back to join them. My wife and I walked around our spacious backyard, making our ubiquitous Spring-time, unrealistically optimistic plans for the yard and the garden.

We made it back to my sad little compost pile, dreaming of fences, when my wife said, "What kind of flower is that?"



I don't know what it is. It is wonderfully aromatic and quite beautiful. It hadn't flowered by the mailbox. It hadn't flowered in my garden. It flowered in the rotting refuse of yards gone by.



There's a lesson here somewhere.

Peace