THINK TOGETHER.
What is your favorite parable of Jesus?
READ TOGETHER.
Matthew 13:1-3. 1That same day Jesus went out of the house and sat beside the sea. 2And great crowds gathered about him, so that he got into a boat and sat down. And the whole crowd stood on the beach. 3And he told them many things in parables
Jesus loved to talk in parables. Do you know what a parable is? A parable was a story, usually about something very normal or simple, that had a much deeper meaning. Growing up I was told that a parable is an earthly story with a heavenly meaning.
Probably a lot of the stories you love are like this. A great story usually is meant to teach us a lesson too. Can you think of any stories that you love that teach us an important lesson?
In Matthew 13, Jesus will go on to tell a story about a farmer who planted seeds in the soil.
Matthew 13:3-8. 3“A sower went out to sow. 4And as he sowed, some seeds fell along the path, and the birds came and devoured them. 5Other seeds fell on rocky ground, where they did not have much soil, and immediately they sprang up, since they had no depth of soil, 6but when the sun rose they were scorched. And since they had no root, they withered away. 7Other seeds fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked them. 8Other seeds fell on good soil and produced grain…
Do you think you can figure out the deeper meaning of Jesus’ parable? Who do you think the sower (farmer) is? The sower is Jesus. What do you think the seed is? The seed is the good news about Jesus. What do you think the different soils are (the path, the rocky soil, the thorny soil, the good soil)? The different soils are different kinds of people.
Some people are like the path – when they hear about Jesus nothing happens because they don’t care. .
Some people are like the rocky soil – they like Jesus at first, but when things get hard they give up on trusting him.
Some people are like the thorny soil – they like Jesus, but are easily distracted and forget to trust him sometimes.
And then there are some people that Jesus calls good soil – these are people who keep trusting Jesus and because they do other people start to trust in Jesus too.
When we trust in Jesus he turns us into good soil. He turns our little bit of faith into more and more faith. Then, as we learn to trust Jesus more and more, other people see what Jesus is like and they might even trust him and become good soil too.
Because of Jesus we can be turned into good soil that trusts him no matter what.
With Jesus we can tell others about him too.
DO SOMETHING TOGETHER
Go outside and look at different soils (path, rocky, thorny, good). What makes plants grow in good soil? What kind of soil do you think you are? Are you growing in your trust in Jesus?
PRAY TOGETHER
Jesus, I know I can never help myself and I need you. Thank you for healing me of all my sin. Amen.
TLICfamily 