Strawberry Tales
Bob: Hey kids! Welcome to FruitTales!
Larry: And we’re here to answer your questions.
Bob: Today we got a question from Violet. She said, “Do distractions affect our relationship with Jesus?” Let’s tell the story of the Strawberries.
Larry: Jade’s family used to own and operate a u-pick strawberry farm when she was a kid. She remembers planting what seemed like endless rows of strawberries! In the spring her dad cultivated and tilled the field so the dirt was nice and soft, and then for several days her whole family tucked tiny strawberry plants into rows, each plant a foot apart from the last one. All throughout the summer, Jade and her sister Calista, had to weed that acre of strawberries almost every day. The next year, her dad decided they needed to plant more, so they planted - tuck cover, tuck cover, tuck cover - another acre. When a new strawberry bush is first planted, the blossoms have to be picked off to give it a chance to establish itself. Within a year, a spindly row of berries can be a wide, productive row of berries. By the time they planted that second acre, the first acre had filled out and was beautiful and productive. However, the second acre got neglected because Jade and Calista focused on weeding and caring for the first acre. When they did eventually go back to the second acre, weeds had choked out the strawberry plants.
Bob: Larry, you know what this reminds me of? A parable Jesus told, in which a farmer planted a crop and some of the seeds landed in good dirt and others landed in a bunch of weeds. The ones that landed in good dirt produced a good crop, but the ones that landed in the weeds died. Jesus said the seeds planted represented hearing His teachings, and the dirt and weeds represented the different types of people that hear them. Some people eagerly accept what they have heard and keep growing and improving their relationship with Jesus, just like the first acre of strawberries Jade planted. It grew healthy and produced well.
Larry: And the second acre Jade planted, or the weeds in the parable, represents people that hear what religion is about, and may even agree with it, but then get distracted by school, entertainment and maybe even by friends.
Bob: Okay. It’s time to talk about what we’ve learned today. We learned that we need to weed out the distractions in our lives to make room for Jesus.
Larry: That second acre of strawberries in the story never recovered. If Jade had put effort into weeding and caring for it, eventually it could’ve, but it still would have started producing later than it could’ve.
Bob: Let’s see if Qwerty has a verse for us today. “I will meditate on your precepts and fix my eyes on your ways” Psalm 119:15.
Larry: I want to make sure that I avoid distractions from God so that I can develop to the full potential He has planned for me. Do you?
Bob: And remember kids, God made you special and He loves you very much.
Both: Goodbye!
Jade Covel is a junior studying religion.