A guest post from a long-time reader and correspondent, Jim May.

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Praying is not always encouraging. It can seem like God takes forever to care for people we’re praying for, or does not hear or even care.

Since the cold, dark days of late winter, I have been sprouting seeds inside in preparation for planting them out in the garden. 

When I plant each seed in each small pot, I hope that it will grow. This spring most of the seeds I planted have not grown. I don’t know why. Sometimes it is just like that. I don’t think of planting seeds as a failure-based operation, but this year one could make the case that it is.

What I do know is that regardless of seeds that have fallen on hard soil or that have rotted in soil that I overwatered too, I rejoice at each sprouting seed. If every seed I had planted had germinated, I would not have enough space in my garden for all the plants… 

For some reason today, the Matthew passage made me think about the people I pray for. People who do not hear, whose hearts have grown dull who seem to be a garden of seeds on hard soil. I still pray. I hear them crying and shouting. I see broken hearts.

I long that they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears and understand with their heart and turn, and be healed.

And sometimes, when I’ve completely given up on a pot of seeds, when it is long past time that any growth could be anticipated or expected, sometimes even after I have dumped out the pot in the garden to reclaim the soil, the seed will sprout. 

Success is not my department. I plant the seeds and hope and tend what grows. It’s like that with prayers. Whenever anyone hears the word and understands and bears fruit, it is a miracle – the work of the Master Gardener who can change soil, change hearts, remove weeds, deal with the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches, chase away the crows, and make dead seeds sprout, grow, flourish, and produce good fruit.

He’s done it for me, and he can do it for those I love.

Thanks be to God.