The family is out-of-town, so I spend my first night solo planting our small garden in the backyard. This seems like a natural thing to do. Plus, it’s good bonding time for me and our Golden Retriever puppy Boone. We are fortunate in that we don’t have to live off what I plant in the garden because Boone decides to start eating the seeds before I have a chance to plant them.

I begin tiling the soil, laying down some top soil, and then get ready to plant. By the way, I have no idea if this is proper protocol for planting a garden, it just seems like a close enough to correct way to do it. I’ve got the seeds ready to go. I start out making sure I have enough distance between plantings, but somewhere along the way I lose the pattern.  I’m either planting the cucumbers too close or too far away, I can’t tell. Before I know it, I’m throwing more so than planting. I’ve fallen into reckless planting, just sort of putting cucumbers, squash, and zucchini seeds EVERYWHERE.

Several things cross my mind; I think of the work so many are doing across the country on behalf of the Poor People’s Campaign. I think about the beginning of Pride Month and how more of my LGBTQ+ sisters and brothers are finding welcome in faith communities. I also recognize how far we still need to go to make this world the world that God dreams it can be. I think of Jesus and the parable he tells about a sower. A RECKLESS sower. A sower who is sowing seeds everywhere, recognizing that we are not called to determine the outcome but to supply the ingredients. The outcome will never be achieved if we are not willing to be the ingredients.

I realize that there are so many who, in the name of Jesus, are living out this parable on a daily basis. Sowing the seeds of love (unintentional Tears for Fears reference) whenever and however they can. We are way too stingy with God’s love. Imagine a world in which all those attempting to follow Jesus sowed seeds of love as faithfully and as recklessly as he did. The world would be a much different place.

I don’t know how the garden will turn out, but it me aware of the truth. I need to be more reckless with my sowing of God’s love into this world. I’m too stingy with it. The truth is that we need more willing to be the reckless sowers of God’s love that we need now perhaps more than ever.