Goodness Comes From the Giving

California is a rich and bountiful land. It is one of life’s blessings that I live here. Northern California is known for it high tech industries. The Southern part is the entertainment capital of the world. But central California is still mainly agricultural, as important as the high tech industries in the north and the entertainment industries in the south.

People here really make the effort to take care of the care and all those living in it. Large swaths of lands are protected. Many endangered species are protected. There are very strict zoning laws. The environmental movement is very active and strong. Gardening is a favorite pastime for many. And somehow the language and wisdom of the farm and agriculture intersects and mingle with the world of computers and technology.

I have a friend who works with a chip company. Her company maintains fruit trees from the agricultural past of the Santa Clara Valley. Her husband is an avid gardener, with us often being recipients of the bountiful harvests from his garden. She also shares with us the fruits of their orange trees. She said that trees that are not harvested give only sour fruits in the long run. But trees that are harvested give sweet fruits season after season.

I thought that a very uplifting insight. Even among trees, goodness comes from the giving.

On another occasion, Jesus began to teach by the sea.
A very large crowd gathered around him
so that he got into a boat on the sea and sat down.
And the whole crowd was beside the sea on land.
And he taught them at length in parables,
and in the course of his instruction he said to them,
“Hear this! A sower went out to sow.
And as he sowed, some seed fell on the path,
and the birds came and ate it up.
Other seed fell on rocky ground where it had little soil.
It sprang up at once because the soil was not deep.
And when the sun rose, it was scorched and it withered for lack of roots.
Some seed fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked it
and it produced no grain.
And some seed fell on rich soil and produced fruit.
It came up and grew and yielded thirty, sixty, and a hundredfold.”
He added, “Whoever has ears to hear ought to hear.”
Mark 4:1-20