The one who received the seed that fell on good soil is the man who hears the Word and understands it. He produces a crop, yielding a hundred, sixty, or thirty times what was sown (Matthew 13:23).
By Dr. Paul Brand
My home is near the Olympic National Park and the rain forest that clothes the lower slopes of the western mountains. We love to take our grandchildren to see the wonder of the living forest. Near the Hoh River there is a row of trees in a straight line. Each one of those giant trees seems to be standing astride, with its legs apart. Each trunk is single, but only from maybe 7 feet above ground. At that point it is supported by two huge root systems, like legs, that spread apart and curve down to reach the ground about 7
feet apart, leaving a tunnel between them. If one looks through the tunnel in the first tree, you can see through the other tunnels in the other trees because they are in a straight line.
That clue explains it all. A hundred years ago or more a giant tree fell in the forest. It died, and lay dead and decaying for many years. Seeds, falling from other giant trees, fell into the cracks of the bark and rooted there, using the dead tree as rich soil. All the materials the old tree had collected over the years, and which had formed the basis of its strength and vitality, were now being made available to the young seedlings
growing on what we now call a “nurse log.” As the young trees grew, they needed support for their great size, while the dead tree was weakened by decay. So the young trees sent out roots around the old trunk to reach the ground on either side. Those roots gradually became the whole support of the young trees, while the old tree disintegrated and finally disappeared, becoming one with the soil around it.
Our children and grandchildren have stood quietly looking through the space where that old tree lay. We cannot see the tree itself, but we can see the way it has helped to shape and give nourishment to the new generation of giant trees, forming a “colonnade” in memory of the nurse log whose substance continues in them.
[Nurse log photos: by eastpole and by oldmantravels]
I look through that space too, but with a different perspective. My active life is mostly behind me. Soon I will no longer occupy space. But I pray that my life and the principles that God has helped me to live by will continue to influence young lives. When we die we not only leave seed, but we also leave an effect on the soil
in which future children grow and future spiritual seed will be nourished. That’s one reason the psalmist says, “Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints” (Psalm. 116:15).
Good soil is the legacy of pioneer grasses and plants now long gone. It has been said that the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church. Perhaps it would be more accurate to say that it’s the soil of the church. The seed is the living Word of God. I am thankful that I grew up surrounded by a godly family who told me stories of Christian pioneers and martyrs. My heroes were those who had given their lives for Christ and the gospel. Thus when the living seed fell into my heart, the soil was well prepared.
This devotional was written by Dr. Paul Brand,
who is now with the Lord-–and who has truly left fertile soil of such depth that it is sure to nourish both his biological and spiritual descendants for generations. You can find the entire context of this devotional in the Discovery House Publishers book He Satisfies My Soul. It also appears in the Discovery Series booklet “Good’s Good Earth,” which can be obtained without cost here. The wonderful story of Dr. Brand and his wife was also made into a three-part video series that can be viewed online on RBC’s Day of Discovery site here. Also found in the DHP book and the DS booklet is Dr. Brand’s touching story called “A Handful of Mud,” which has appeared in many publications over the years. This would be a wonderful story to read to children. It can be found too on this website here.

who is now with the Lord-–and who has truly left fertile soil of such depth that it is sure to nourish both his biological and spiritual descendants for generations. You can find the entire context of this devotional in the Discovery House Publishers book
At the age of 37 I entered a three-year “dark night of the soul” called mid-life crisis. No, I didn’t buy a red sports car, abandon my family, and become a beach bum. Mostly I cried a lot. Sometimes at night I would go outside, look up at the stars, and ask, “God, where are you?” and weep again because the heavens were brass. One day I fell crying into my wife’s lap—telling her that I needed God to step out of heaven and tell me that everything will be all right. Her answer was Spirit-inspired: “God is not going to step out of heaven and tell you that, but I’m here and I’m telling you that everything is going to be all right!” Marge and my friends became the voice and heart of Jesus during that bleak time. They took my hand and carried the Light for me throughout the night until morning came again.
to create joy. I even wrote a psalm about it—my mid-life crisis psalm. I’d like to repeat it here, but I’ve misplaced it. The sum of it, though, is that I bewailed the loss of joy in my vocation as a Christian school administrator, in my wife and children, and in the natural world. Living in Northern California at the time, I had access to some of the world’s most amazing natural wonders: Big Sur, the redwood forest, the Sierra Nevada, Point Reyes, and typically awe-inspiring Yosemite. Yet they became incapable of giving me joy. I was heartsick and only God could heal me—which He eventually did. And I learned the lesson that C. S. Lewis taught in
The creation by itself never satisfies the soul—a fact learned when one is heartsick. It’s the existence, love, and care of our Creator/Savior and His people that makes joy in anything possible. If the soul of someone in your sphere of influence is struggling in the night, stay with them and carry the Light; and keep reminding them that joy—and growth—will come again with the morning.
In the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, in order to fulfill the word of the LORD spoken by Jeremiah, the LORD moved the heart of Cyrus king of Persia to make a proclamation throughout his realm and to put it in writing:
many of our urban rivers now provide great sport fishing and safe water recreation. I recall as a kid in the fifties that our local Grand River was not grand: it was mostly an industrial, agricultural, and sewage drain that sent huge plumes of crud out into Lake Michigan immediately adjacent to a major swimming beach. Today anglers fish below the high-rise buildings downtown and land large salmon and steelhead.


Look at that now! Why, it looks as if these giants of God’s great army had just now marched into their stations; every one placed just right, just right! What landscape gardening! What a scheme of things! And to think that [God] should plan to bring us feckless creatures here at the right moment, and then flash such glories at us! Man. We’re not worthy of such honor! “Praise God from whom all blessing flow”! [Note that every sentence ends with an exclamation mark.]
