MY CUP RUNNETH OVER

 

 What do you do with pounds and pounds of zucchini?  I've made zucchini soup -- two types, zucchini loaves -- two types, zucchini quiche, zucchini marmalade and zucchini chocolate cake.  There are still sixteen cups of grated zucchini in the fridge and I'm afraid to look under the leaves in the garden.  
    I've fried zucchini, baked zucchini, roasted zucchini and grilled zucchini.  I've put it in pancakes and casseroles and salads, and I've given it away.  There is still zucchini lurking in the garden.  Such abundance!

    A few weeks ago, Rev. Irwin preached on the parable of the sower, or as he liked to call it the parable of the soil.  He made the point that a return on a seed of thirty, sixty or one hundredfold was a truly remarkable harvest.  Well, all the abundance I have described above is from two seeds.  Two!  
     And even though I'm the one who planted them, it is God who supplies the sun and the rain and the miracle of growth.  Yet I get to reap the harvest.  The shelves in my larder groan under the weight.  My freezer is full.  I have preserved food for the winter and still the plants keep giving.  I have surely reaped a hundredfold.

    Of course, the story of the sower is a parable.  Jesus wasn't speaking literally of sowing grain -- or zucchini -- but of sowing the Word of God.  I pray that I can plant seeds of faith that will grow like my zucchinis.  I pray that God will water them, provide them with light and food and that they will produce an abundant harvest.

P.S.  Anyone want a zucchini?