The new thing I tried in this painting is to make a border with masking tape so there is room to frame it. I learned this in high school, but was just reminded of it again. Always something new to learn (or be reminded of).

Twice recently I was reminded about a parable in the gospels where Jesus told about a sower. Then I remembered that the statue on top of the Nebraska State Capitol is a sower, so I decided to try painting it. Here is more information about The Sower statue.

With several inches of snow on the ground, and sub freezing temperatures, it seems like an odd time to be thinking of sowing, but farmers and gardeners are planning crops now, and I saw packets of seeds in the store yesterday.

The parable is actually about the soils, not the sower, however.  The sower sows the seed in the same way on four types of soil.  Only one is good soil that produces a crop.  The other three are a path where birds come and eat the seed, rocky soil where roots cannot grow deeply, and a place where thorns come up and choke out the plant.  The soils represent people and the way we respond to the gospel message.  In Luke 8:11-15, Jesus explains the parable to His disciples. (Also Matthew 13:18-23 and Mark 4:14-20)

I think I’ll just let the Scripture speak for itself while we consider what type of soil we are.