Today's readings:
Psalm 1: 1- 3
Jeremiah 17:7-8
Matthew 13: 3 - 6
Spookily, after I opted yesterday to go with the mustard seed parable, each of today's verses has a bit of a tree theme! Both the psalm and the Jeremiah have the righteous person compared to a tree growing by a stream, where it flourishes. The Matthew gives us a bit of the parable of the sower/soils/seed, stopping hsort with the seed that falls on the rocky places and is parched.
So, if today I stay with the part parable, we get this:
Then Jesus told them many things in parables, saying: “A farmer went out to sow his seed. As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up. Some fell on rocky places, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly, because the soil was shallow. But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root.”
Rather than love being the seed or the plant/shrub/tree, what about love as that which is necesaary for the healthy growth of the said vegetation? Love as a the stream that provides water, the soil that offers nutrients and cover, the sun that warms the shoots and enables photosynthesis? What about love in many guises (water, food, shelter, warmth, etc) that enables us to reach our potential? And if some of that is absent - physical or metaphorical hunger, cold, exposure - how is our gorwth stunted or destroyed?
A quick gander in HymnQuest (not finding the contemporary song for which I was looking, shows there are a fair few which speak of the 'stream(s) of God's love' of which this one seemed to stirke a chord depsite its antiquated language and idiom:
Make channels for the streams of love,
Where they may broadly run;
For love has overflowing streams
To fill them every one.
But if at any time we cease
Such channels to provide,
They very founts of love for us
Will soon be parched and dried.
For we must share if we would keep
That blessing from above;
Ceasing to give we cease to have-
This is the law of love.
Richard C Trench (1807-1886)
And so to my own response...
God of love
Living water, flowing like an endless stream
Let me dip my feet into its coolness
Let me gulp in mouthfulness of its refreshing
Let me splash delightedly in its shallows
Let me swim in its depths
Let it wash away my faitgue
My dryness
Let it fill my heart, mind and soul
My emptiness
Let me fill a bucket and carry it,
Spilling over the rim
To share with others
Literally
Metaphorically
Needing their own
Refreshment
Cleansing
Delighting
God, source of love
God, love incarnate
God, let us drink from you again
Amen