Three Men and Four Soils

 The three men looked around in amazement. They stood at the back of a small church filled with beautiful wood pews and floors and stained glass windows on each side. There was no apparent way in or out except for two doors to the right and left of the stage area. Two steps across the front of the stage meant that from anywhere at the front of the church one could step onto the stage. There was no podium on the stage but from where they stood it looked like four patches of ground.

“Weren’t we just in a car?” Steve asked, breaking the silence of the room.

“Ya” replied Joe and Karl whose eyes were still taking in the room.

Karl took a step forward and turned back to face his two friends. “I don’t think this bodes well for us making it to Indy before 4.”

None of them said anything but they all wondered if this meant they would make it back home at all.

The three turned their attention to the front and began moving in that direction with full but measured steps. Karl in front with the other two behind. Once they were in front of the pews they spread out and took the final two steps toward the stage. Sure, enough, there were four different meter-long squares of ground on the stage. Each man looked at the other and then at the ground. The square furthest to the left was very clearly hard-packed ground, then came one with rocks filling the soil and a few stunted plants, the third was filled with knee-high weeds so think Karl wondered if you could even step in it. The final plot of ground looked rich, and the tops of perfectly cultivated wheat were just high enough to give the ground a smooth carpet of green from the sight angle.

“Mark 4, the parable of the Sower” Joe stated.

“Ya” the other two agreed familiar with the parable.

“What does it have to do with us?” Steve started to ask but from behind them came a blazing light.

The three started to turn around but the light was so bright they had to turn away causing them to fall to one knee and use their hands to keep from falling over. In the turmoil, Karl’s hand fell on the edge of the weed-covered ground. Though overwhelming the light gave off a sense of life and peace, the weed-covered ground filled Karl’s hand with the exact opposite. He couldn’t pull his hand away fast enough as it seemed to him though he knew it couldn’t have been on the ground for more than a second. He focused on the hand for a moment, knowing he would see it diseased and frail but to his relief it was normal.

Karl began to look back toward the light and saw in the eye of Joe a figure coming out of the light and the light dimmed quickly.

“Stand up, don’t be afraid. I’m your guide for this moment.” said a full deep voice from the figure they still couldn’t completely make out with their eyes still adjusting.

The three stood and faced what appeared to be a priest in a white robe and stole.

Karl thought the guy may have been dressed like a priest but looked like he could have been more like the huge African-American Sergeant he was trained under in the Marines. The one difference was this one would have won if the two had fought, the other major difference was that the Sargent would have never been called angelic.

“Behind you are the four soils from the parable you correctly identified. Consider carefully which one is right and step on it and you will return to your earthly bodies.”

The three turned and looked at the patches of ground and then at each other. Each could see the other was thinking, what happens if we choose incorrectly?

They weren’t sure how long but after a few seconds or an hour Steve couldn’t be sure the angel behind them said, “Steve, why don’t you lead the way.”

Steve turned to the angel, and then to his friends. “I know what the right choice should be, but when I look at myself, I know which is more honest.” Before anyone could do anything, Steve took a step onto hard-backed ground on which nothing would grow and disappear.

“And you Joe?”

Joe nodded and without saying anything stepped onto the ground covered with stones and disappeared.

Karl stared. He knew these men as well as anyone. Steve may have been a hard-hearted person long ago, but he was the most tender-hearted one of the three. Joe was the last person Karl would have called shallow. The roots of his faith and his knowledge of the Bible was also the greatest of the three. He was confused but as he looked at the soil, he knew which represented his heart. He had filled his life with everything, and though he had tried to change he didn’t feel as if he had done enough.

He started to move toward the weeds but paused and looked back at the angel a thought filling his mind. “I really was hoping to see, you know this being,” he pauses unable to say a death experience. “What it is.”

“Your wife?”

Karl’s wife had passed a year earlier but Karl shook his head, “No” But then Karl paused thinking that it felt wrong to say he didn’t want to see his wife, but it wasn’t who he had been thinking. He knew she was alright.

The angel nodded and said, “Oh, Jesus. I should have known. I can tell.”

Karl nodded.

“Step onto the ground you were heading for, and you will.”

Karl turned toward the ground and began to step forward but turned and faced the angel with concern etched across his face. “I’ll die on earth if I step there won’t I?”

“Yes, but you will see Him.”

Karl looked toward the grass and then back. “I want it but if God has something more for me to do, I don’t want to make the wrong choice, like I have in the past. If me going back is better than I’m willing.”

The angel could see the look on Karl’s face and shook his head. “I have been assured it’s not the wrong choice and your friends will be okay.”

“I know, God will take care of them.” And with that, he turned and stepped onto the ground filled with weeds. Everything changed around Karl and now instead of standing on weed he stood on a gorgeous hillside and then he saw the smiling face of Jesus.

The angel saw what he had with the other two. The soil changed when each placed their foot upon it. The soil became rich. the ground filled with growing grain. Except for Karl’s grain on Karl’s patch, it was full and ready for harvest.

The angel shook his head, “A hundred-fold that one." The angel looked up and said, "They never do judge their hearts right, but the humble never do."     

Photo by Debby Hudson on Unsplash