Seeds of the Sower
I bought my first house in August 1976, just three months after graduating from Auburn. It sat on a dirt road about a mile from downtown Donalsonville, Georgia, the town I would call home for the next 43 years. Eighteen months later, after we married, Mary Lou joined me there.
The one-acre yard was filled with pine trees that produced plenty of pinecones and straw. It also had a magnificent oak that later shaded the patio we built using foundation bricks from the Donalsonville train depot.
We had no cable television, and the network stations our antenna picked up usually signed off at midnight. We heard the Star-Spangled Banner when programming ended at night and again when it resumed early the next morning.
At first, I rose early because my job at Beall Peanut Company began at 6:00 a.m. Later, our first child made early mornings part of life, as they are for young, first-time parents. After the National Anthem, the first program on television was a one-minute segment called “A Seed for the Garden of Your Heart,” which aired even before Red Holland’s Morning Show.
Each morning, I listened to Dr. Michael Guido broadcast from the small town of Metter, Georgia. What began in 1952 as a radio program called “A Seed from the Sower” eventually aired 1.5 million times a year. “A Seed for the Garden of Your Heart”, the television version, reached 1,250,000 homes three times each day.
In Matthew 13, the parable of the Sower calls us to slow down, look honestly at our hearts, and ask, “What kind of soil am I?” It shaped our Sunday School lesson today and later became the foundation of the sermon.
Jesus describes four kinds of spiritual soil, showing not just how seeds grow, but how people respond when they hear God’s Word. Jesus tells of a farmer scattering seed on four types of soil:
The Path: The seed is quickly eaten by birds, representing those who hear God’s word but lose it almost immediately to distraction.
Rocky Ground: The seed sprouts quickly but withers for lack of deep roots, representing those who receive the message with joy but fall away when hardship comes.
Among Thorns: The seed is choked by weeds, representing those who hear the message but allow life’s worries and the lure of wealth to crowd it out.
Good Soil: The seed takes root and yields an abundant harvest, representing those who hear the word, understand it, and live fruitfully.
Almost exactly 50 years I first heard Dr. Guido plant his seeds or spread the Word of God. I still think of him whenever I hear the Parable of the Sower. From his own modest beginnings in a small remote town in Georgia, he spread seeds to millions. Today, his work continues through radio, television, print and prison ministries.
Dr. Michael Guido from Metter, Georgia. God’s Word certainly found fertile soil when that seed landed on him.
o0o
Dan Ponder can be reached at [email protected]
