In the Gospel of Mark, the very first parable Jesus tells involves a sower and his seeds. Some seeds fall along the path where they are immediately gobbled up by the birds. Other seeds reach shallow soil and initially seem to thrive; but a few days out in the Texas sun soon has them withered and dying of thirst. Still other seeds fall among the weeds, where the competition for survival is intense, and eventually they are choked out. Finally, there are those seeds—those precious few seeds, it would seem—that actually hit pay dirt and flourish!

Whenever I hear this parable, I can’t help wondering what kind of soil I most resemble. Am I the person who wants to be faithful, but my faith keeps getting choked out by worries, fears, and regrets? Or am I the person who is forever being gobbled up by distractions, so that my day is already half spent before I even have a chance to figure out how I am supposed to be spending it?

I am probably not alone in asking such questions; but they may, in fact, be the wrong questions for this particular parable. After all, Jesus doesn’t start out, “There once were four different kinds of soil”; he starts out, “There once was a farmer who went out to sow.” This is a parable about the sower, not the soils—which means that it is not really about our successes or failures.

It is a story about the merciful extravagance of a God who seems astonishingly willing to keep flinging seeds of grace and love, regardless of where they might land. It is a story about a God who doesn’t really pay much attention to what the Farmers’ Almanac predicts in terms of a crop’s “growth potential.” Instead, the good Lord just keeps reaching into the satchel and generously casting seeds anywhere and everywhere!

Later this week, most of us will find ourselves seated at a Thanksgiving table, laden with food, and surrounded by family and friends. At some point during that meal, I hope you will pause to reflect upon—and even more so, to give thanks for—the bounty of blessings each of us enjoys. I won’t presume to tell you exactly how to do that; but here’s a hint. Learn to see everything you have as a gift from God.

It might be a bit tricky at first, since we don’t always recognize that everything in our lives is, indeed, a gift. Sometimes our gratitude sprouts up quickly, as if planted in shallow soil, but then withers away as we begin to take such gifts for granted. Other times our gratitude is gobbled up by the mistaken belief that we earned what we have, or somehow are entitled to it. Still other times our gratitude is choked out by the weeds of envying what our neighbor has, or worrying about what we still lack.

Thankfully, our response—or lack thereof—doesn’t deter the sower. God keeps flinging gifts, far and wide, like a farmer with an endless supply of seeds. If you ask me, the reason God is so extravagantly generous in sowing seeds is that, eventually, a few may find their way into the fertile soil of a grateful heart, allowing each of us to recognize how truly blessed we are!