Tulip Festival | Wayfarer

Still other seed fell on good soil, where it produced a crop—a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown.
Matthew 13:8 (NIV)

Happy Easter! It is spring and here in Iowa the landscape is quickly changing from the dull neutral tones of gray, beige, and deep brown that dominate the death of winter into vibrant and lush green of new life and a rainbow of blossoms that it brings. Here in Pella, the tulip beds are in full bloom and our annual Tulip Time festival is just ten days away.

In today’s chapter, Jesus famously teaches the crowds in parables, and the subject of His parables are all about soil, seeds, and weeds. This got me thinking a bit about the spiritual parable of my own experiences this season…

I’ve already mowed my lawn a couple of times. It was 10 years ago that Wendy and I moved into our newly constructed house. The company we hired to do our lawn was one of the more difficult contractors we worked with in the process. The soil on our property wasn’t the greatest and we had loads of black dirt brought in to supplement it. Even so, the yard was not grated well, and the soil was not spread well. The result has been a decade of trouble and hard work. Every spring as I break out the lawn mower and begin working the lawn I confess feeling a bit embittered regarding how much better and easier it would be if the soil had been done well, and done right, from the beginning.

Meanwhile, inside the house I’ve been experimenting with one of those countertop herb gardens advertised online. I have confessed many times in these posts/podcasts to my brown thumbs and lack of ability to successfully garden, even while living my entire life on the richest, most productive farmland on the face of the earth. I’m happy to say that my tiny little herb garden has been highly productive despite the multiple mistakes I’ve made getting started. I’ve been supplementing my dinner salads with Romain lettuce from countertop. Our supply of fresh Basil is slowly growing, and I’ve got plenty of fresh mint growing to mix some Mojitos to enjoy on the back patio this summer.

One of the things I’ve noticed about my little countertop herb garden has been both the soil, which I’ve never seen anything like it in my life, and the watering system which is genius in allowing the soil to soak up what the plants need without drowning them and takes my human incompetence and lack of disciplined attention out of the equation.

Which has me thinking about Jesus’ parable in the quiet this morning. The difference between the 25% of seeds that became productive and fruitful plants in Jesus’ parable and the 75% of seeds who didn’t make it was the quality of the soil. Which has me thinking about my contrasting experiences with my lawn and my countertop herb garden. The profoundly simple question Jesus’ parable, and my experience, leads to is: “What is the quality of the spiritual soil of my heart, mind, and life?”

As I meditated on Jesus’ parable, I realized that there are both things that I control and things that are out of my control with regard to the spiritual cultivation of my heart and mind. I don’t completely control the weather of life, the circumstances around me, or even the weeds that might have been sown to my right or left and are flourishing to my perpetual aggravation. I do, however, control the inflows of what I draw into my eyes, my ears, my heart, my mind, and my body. I control my time and my energy expenditure. I can push my spiritual roots deeper where springs of Living Water can nourish me, or I can simply choose to soak up the shallow and toxic run-off this world ceaselessly sheds from its surface.

The words of the Serenity Prayer came to me as I pushed my roots deeper this morning:

Lord, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change,
the courage to change the things I can,
and the wisdom to know the difference.

Or, in other words:

Lord, help me to be the best spiritual soil I can be for Your Word to take root that my life might be as fruitful and productive as possible today. Grant me patience, grace, and peace amidst the weeds and weather of this world that I do not control. And give me wisdom to know the difference.

If you know anyone who might be encouraged by today’s post, please share.

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Each year our little town of Pella, Iowa celebrates its Dutch heritage with the annual Tulip Time festival. At the core of this traditional celebration is the election of our Tulip Queen and her court (Our daughter, Madison, was a finalist in the contest back in her day). Our dear friend, Megan, is on the court this year, and so Wendy and I headed out last night to a packed community center auditorium to watch the Queen and her court perform the program that they will take on the road to promote our town, our festival, our heritage, (and our local businesses!).

I’m not sure that most residents in our town appreciate the way this annual tradition taps into some of the deepest sentiments of Dutch heritage. As the young republic of the Netherlands fought its revolt against Spain, one of the most powerful national patriotic metaphors emerged out of the deep sentiment the Dutch held for hearth and home: the Hollandse Maagd (Dutch Maid). Young, beautiful, and verdant, the Dutch Maid appeared with the rampant lion amidst her small fortress symbolizing the small republics small fortress state set amidst the sea and her enemies.

Later, the Dutch Maid’s fortress became a lush garden of prosperity over which she was enthroned.

Writes Simon Schama in The Embarrassment of Riches:

“The enclosure had by now become the verdant and well-stocked garden – the tuin – that signified the divinely blessed prosperity of the Netherlands and within the Dutch Maid, both comely and vulnerable, was now enthroned.”

The Dutch Maid even found her place on Dutch currency.

I enjoyed watching last night as our local Hollandse Maagds paraded out in traditional Gronigen costume, complete with Dutch hat. The Tulip Queen and her court will metaphorically preside over our prosperous tulip gardens, lead our parades, honor our traditions, and promote our local commerce. All five of them truly are amazing, beautiful, intelligent, and talented young ladies. And, I realized last night, whether they know it or not these young ladies embody a metaphor that is more deeply entrenched in our heritage and speaks more deeply to our community psyche than most of us know or can possibly imagine.