One of the blessings of living on Long Island are our mild winters.  At least most years.  This winter, as you know, is not a mild winter anywhere and certainly not here on LI.  So to escape the frustration of not being a skier I have taken to sowing seeds.  This year I am going to try hydroponics.  I have already planted 13 varieties of peppers.  A few sweet but most hot.  Unlike the sower in Matthew 13 I spent a lot of time putting each seed in what I think is a good growing medium.  The seeds weren't expensive but they come in small packages, so their limited numbers make them precious.  I got mine from growers on Ebay and other internet sites.  Did you ever wonder where Matthew's sower got his?  This sowing of seeds is the hopeful beginning of a new life cycle.  It will end with a harvest.  Some of the fruit from the harvest will be better than others and from the best the sower will select seed for the next cycle after the ground has had a chance to rest.

In some ways it's like a Revival or move of God.  A great awakening or birth of a new religious community.  The ground has rested;   It is tired of winter.  It welcomes the rains that freshen dormant nutrients within it.  It welcomes the sun that warms it with its now lingering kisses of solar rays.  The previous harvest was a big success with much fruit and the sower has extra seed to spare and spreads it joyfully over the earth so that no spot may be missed.  There is no part of the sower's domain that doesn't get a sprinkling of seed and for its part every square inch of the sower's domain eagerly embraces the fresh seed and caresses them with those freshly awakened nutrients within it.  And so it has been down through the ages as revival after revival has brought back to life a peculiar people.  As Solomon said there is nothing new under the sun.  What has been will be.  Have you in your lifetime experienced an actual spiritual revival?  Can we pray for revival?