You can listen to this reflection here. Sunday's gospel reading is here.
It is weed season in the northern hemisphere – hot, humid weather, storm-fed downpours. Everywhere we look, in our yards and gardens, on city streets, there are weeds to be pulled.
It is weed season in Jesus’ parable too – an unnamed enemy has sown weeds in the wheat field in the dead of night. The servants propose to pull them up. The field’s owner has a different plan: “The servants said to him, 'Then do you want us to go and gather them?' But he replied, 'No; for in gathering the weeds you would uproot the wheat along with them. Let both of them grow together until the harvest; and at harvest time I will tell the reapers, Collect the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat into my barn.'”
I had a friend who said, “Weeds are a social designation.” Meaning, there is nothing innately wrong with many of the plants we deem weeds – except that they are not what we planted, not what we envisioned in our beautiful gardens. She may have glossed over the fact that undesired plants take nourishment and water and sunlight from plants with more fruitfulness – but she has a point. Who are we to decide what’s in and what’s out… or, more importantly, who’s in and who’s out, who’s wheat and who’s weed? Jesus’ story implies that it is not our call.
Yet, if we are to co-exist, what are we to do with people who manifest themselves as quite obviously weed-like – net takers, abusers, manipulators, terrorizers? The parable doesn’t tell us – parables are limited. In this one, the weeds and wheat are inanimate, rooted, fixed. There is no provision for their choices or for them to interact with one another. No parable was meant to tell the whole story.
So then, what is to be our position toward weeds? How might we help transform weeds – or accept them? We start by remembering that we share a common nature with all people, that even the worst possess innate humanity which is worthy of honour even if their behaviour and presentation to the world is not. Somewhere in the most disagreeable person, be they a neighbor or a world leader, is a child of a mother and father, a hurt and broken child worthy of our prayers, worthy of asking God to bless and heal and forgive. Sometimes we ask God to forgive someone before we are ready to do so for ourselves.
We can ask the Spirit to tell us if we’re being called to more interaction with a given “weed” than just praying for God to bless and heal her. Are we invited to be in relationship with him? To listen, to help?
Today, bring to mind some person or group you’ve deemed a “weed” in your garden. As you pray for them, bringing them to mind and envisioning them bathed in God-light, you might also imagine them transformed from weed to glorious bloom, from pinched of face to relaxed and smiling, from mean to nurturing. It is a way of giving specificity to our prayers.
Above all, we remember Paul’s word that “our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.” (Eph 6:12)
The weeds are not the enemy, and the wheat is not in charge. Thanks be to God!
© Kate Heichler, 2026. To receive Water Daily by email each morning, subscribe here. Here are the bible readings for next Sunday. Water Daily is also a podcast – subscribe to it here on Apple, Spotify or your favorite podcast platform.
7-14-26 - The Spoiler
You can listen to this reflection here. Sunday's gospel reading is here.
Who is this enemy in Jesus’ parable, this spoiler who came by night “while everyone was asleep” and sowed weeds among the wheat? We don’t have to look very far for an answer – Jesus provides it in his “key” to the parable: “…the weeds are the children of the evil one, and the enemy who sowed them is the devil.”
Many modern Christians profess not to believe in the devil, though Episcopalians renounce him at every baptism. Such people allow for the concept of evil, but balk at the idea of evil personified, an entity we can name.
Jesus had no such hang-ups. He regularly did battle with the devil – directly, in his temptations in the wilderness; indirectly, releasing people from the power of demons; and cosmically, in his whole mission of redemption and resurrection. He referred to the devil by names such as Satan (“accuser”) and Beelzebub, and depicted him as the source of evil that seeks to thwart the good designs of God.
The devil is mentioned throughout the Bible, though little discussed. He shows up in the preamble to the Book of Job – probably a later addition to the narrative. A fallen angel who aspired to a throne above God’s is discussed in Isaiah 14:12-20: “How you have fallen from heaven, morning star, son of the dawn! You have been cast down to the earth, you who once laid low the nations!” That is how the name Lucifer, or “light-bearer,” comes into our vocabulary. Jesus and New Testament authors spoke of this enemy, this tempter, author of lies, accuser, who has considerable power but is not equal to the power of God.
So why does God allow him any power at all? Was the sower in the parable also asleep? Why does he not accept the servants' offer to root out the weeds among the wheat?
The answer given in Jesus’ story is that trying to do so would destroy both the weeds and the wheat – and God is not in the destruction game. Scripture suggests that is the province of the evil one, who seeks to “corrupt and destroy the creatures of God,” as the Episcopal Church’s baptismal liturgy puts it.
Is Jesus suggesting that we just have to live with evil as a part of life? I believe he is saying something much more complex: that the fight is not ours, but God’s, and God will deal with it in the final judgment, as well as in our day-to-day lives. We don’t have to fight the devil or combat evil. We need to invite the power of heaven to fight on our behalf, to stand with the Spirit against the wiles of the evil one. James tells us, “Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.” (James 4:7) Resist, not fight.
Today I suggest we pray through Ephesians 6:10-20, mentally putting on the armor of light as Paul lays it out. This is a good spiritual tool to be practiced in. Our best strategy against the devil is not fear or fighting, but becoming ever more firmly rooted in God.
Our goal is to be the healthiest wheat we can be, and to strengthen our defensive weapons and armor of light. Lucifer is not the bearer of light – we are, we who carry the Light of the World within us. When we let it shine, the power of darkness doesn’t have a chance.
© Kate Heichler, 2026. To receive Water Daily by email each morning, subscribe here. Here are the bible readings for next Sunday. Water Daily is also a podcast – subscribe to it here on Apple, Spotify or your favorite podcast platform.
Who is this enemy in Jesus’ parable, this spoiler who came by night “while everyone was asleep” and sowed weeds among the wheat? We don’t have to look very far for an answer – Jesus provides it in his “key” to the parable: “…the weeds are the children of the evil one, and the enemy who sowed them is the devil.”
Many modern Christians profess not to believe in the devil, though Episcopalians renounce him at every baptism. Such people allow for the concept of evil, but balk at the idea of evil personified, an entity we can name.
Jesus had no such hang-ups. He regularly did battle with the devil – directly, in his temptations in the wilderness; indirectly, releasing people from the power of demons; and cosmically, in his whole mission of redemption and resurrection. He referred to the devil by names such as Satan (“accuser”) and Beelzebub, and depicted him as the source of evil that seeks to thwart the good designs of God.
The devil is mentioned throughout the Bible, though little discussed. He shows up in the preamble to the Book of Job – probably a later addition to the narrative. A fallen angel who aspired to a throne above God’s is discussed in Isaiah 14:12-20: “How you have fallen from heaven, morning star, son of the dawn! You have been cast down to the earth, you who once laid low the nations!” That is how the name Lucifer, or “light-bearer,” comes into our vocabulary. Jesus and New Testament authors spoke of this enemy, this tempter, author of lies, accuser, who has considerable power but is not equal to the power of God.
So why does God allow him any power at all? Was the sower in the parable also asleep? Why does he not accept the servants' offer to root out the weeds among the wheat?
The answer given in Jesus’ story is that trying to do so would destroy both the weeds and the wheat – and God is not in the destruction game. Scripture suggests that is the province of the evil one, who seeks to “corrupt and destroy the creatures of God,” as the Episcopal Church’s baptismal liturgy puts it.
Is Jesus suggesting that we just have to live with evil as a part of life? I believe he is saying something much more complex: that the fight is not ours, but God’s, and God will deal with it in the final judgment, as well as in our day-to-day lives. We don’t have to fight the devil or combat evil. We need to invite the power of heaven to fight on our behalf, to stand with the Spirit against the wiles of the evil one. James tells us, “Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.” (James 4:7) Resist, not fight.
Today I suggest we pray through Ephesians 6:10-20, mentally putting on the armor of light as Paul lays it out. This is a good spiritual tool to be practiced in. Our best strategy against the devil is not fear or fighting, but becoming ever more firmly rooted in God.
Our goal is to be the healthiest wheat we can be, and to strengthen our defensive weapons and armor of light. Lucifer is not the bearer of light – we are, we who carry the Light of the World within us. When we let it shine, the power of darkness doesn’t have a chance.
© Kate Heichler, 2026. To receive Water Daily by email each morning, subscribe here. Here are the bible readings for next Sunday. Water Daily is also a podcast – subscribe to it here on Apple, Spotify or your favorite podcast platform.
7-13-26 - A Careless Planter?
You can listen to this reflection here. Sunday's gospel reading is here.
Jesus is on a run with agricultural metaphors. After last week’s parable about the sower, we go on to another tale meant to describe the Kingdom of heaven. But this time there are two sowers: He put before them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to someone who sowed good seed in his field; but while everybody was asleep, an enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and then went away. So when the plants came up and bore grain, then the weeds appeared as well.”
As we explore this story, we will see how the sower and his staff deal with this mess. Today, lets rest with the image of a nice, neat field of wheat sabotaged by choking weeds. Jesus cleverly uses this metaphor to account for the presence of evil in the goodness of a good God’s creation – and he is clear that the weeds are introduced not by the Creator, but by an enemy.
In this tale, the evil is inseparable from the good; until it's time for the plants to bear fruit, no one can tell the weeds from the wheat. It’s all just one big mess growing up in the field we call this world. We are reminded not to judge others prematurely – it generally becomes apparent after a while who is making life-giving choices and who is out for their own gain. And even then, it may not be so cut and dried. In this story the wheat does not take matters into its own hands and eliminate the weeds from its midst – a certain co-existence seems to be called for, at least in the short-term we call life in this world.
Jesus’ parables, like all good analogies, can fail us if we push them too hard toward the literal. Jesus likens the weeds to the “children of evil” and the wheat to the “children of the kingdom,” but no one is born one or the other. Theoretically, we all have the chance to be fruit-bearing wheat. It’s a question of where we put our allegiance, and from where we draw our power.
Imagine in prayer seeing yourself rooted in a field, planted by a loving Sower, nurtured by One who tends his beloved creation. We can invite the rain and sun and give thanks as we experience them.
Note of Celebration: Water Daily is thirteen years old today! I’m so happy it proves useful to many on any given day. Have some cake, light a candle and sing us Happy Birthday. Better yet, share with another any blessing you receive – and invite them to subscribe to the email or podcast.
© Kate Heichler, 2026. To receive Water Daily by email each morning, subscribe here. Here are the bible readings for next Sunday. Water Daily is also a podcast – subscribe to it here on Apple, Spotify or your favorite podcast platform.
Jesus is on a run with agricultural metaphors. After last week’s parable about the sower, we go on to another tale meant to describe the Kingdom of heaven. But this time there are two sowers: He put before them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to someone who sowed good seed in his field; but while everybody was asleep, an enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and then went away. So when the plants came up and bore grain, then the weeds appeared as well.”
As we explore this story, we will see how the sower and his staff deal with this mess. Today, lets rest with the image of a nice, neat field of wheat sabotaged by choking weeds. Jesus cleverly uses this metaphor to account for the presence of evil in the goodness of a good God’s creation – and he is clear that the weeds are introduced not by the Creator, but by an enemy.
In this tale, the evil is inseparable from the good; until it's time for the plants to bear fruit, no one can tell the weeds from the wheat. It’s all just one big mess growing up in the field we call this world. We are reminded not to judge others prematurely – it generally becomes apparent after a while who is making life-giving choices and who is out for their own gain. And even then, it may not be so cut and dried. In this story the wheat does not take matters into its own hands and eliminate the weeds from its midst – a certain co-existence seems to be called for, at least in the short-term we call life in this world.
Jesus’ parables, like all good analogies, can fail us if we push them too hard toward the literal. Jesus likens the weeds to the “children of evil” and the wheat to the “children of the kingdom,” but no one is born one or the other. Theoretically, we all have the chance to be fruit-bearing wheat. It’s a question of where we put our allegiance, and from where we draw our power.
Imagine in prayer seeing yourself rooted in a field, planted by a loving Sower, nurtured by One who tends his beloved creation. We can invite the rain and sun and give thanks as we experience them.
- Who else do you consider “wheat” in the part of God’s field in which you dwell? Who helps you be fruitful?
- And are there some whom you deem to be weeds? What happens when you pray for those people? Try it for a few weeks... ask for God to bless them beyond measure.
Note of Celebration: Water Daily is thirteen years old today! I’m so happy it proves useful to many on any given day. Have some cake, light a candle and sing us Happy Birthday. Better yet, share with another any blessing you receive – and invite them to subscribe to the email or podcast.
© Kate Heichler, 2026. To receive Water Daily by email each morning, subscribe here. Here are the bible readings for next Sunday. Water Daily is also a podcast – subscribe to it here on Apple, Spotify or your favorite podcast platform.
7-10-26 - The Good Soil
You can listen to this reflection here. Sunday's gospel reading is here.
One of the wonderful things about Jesus’ parables is their capacity to hold multiple, layered meanings. Even the ones to which Jesus gives a “this means that, and that means this” interpretation allow room for new ways of seeing and understanding the mystery of God-Life in these deceptively simple tales.
So it is with the fourth fate Jesus lays out for the seeds the Sower scattered: “Other seeds fell on good soil and brought forth grain, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. Let anyone with ears listen!”
So, what is good soil for a Good News seed to fall into?
It is soil with enough depth so that roots have room to expand and take hold; soil that is not too dry, nor too wet – meaning rational, but with some expanse for mystery and wonder. Soil that has been turned and aerated, always open to new nutrients, always learning and wondering, alone and with others. (I’m sure there’s a place for worms and grubs and fertilizer in this metaphor….)
In the spirit of multiple and multi-layered meanings, I would also say we are not only in the good soil, we are called to be the good soil in which other seeds can grow into fruitfulness. Let’s take a look at our congregations from the perspective of being good soil:
One of the wonderful things about Jesus’ parables is their capacity to hold multiple, layered meanings. Even the ones to which Jesus gives a “this means that, and that means this” interpretation allow room for new ways of seeing and understanding the mystery of God-Life in these deceptively simple tales.
So it is with the fourth fate Jesus lays out for the seeds the Sower scattered: “Other seeds fell on good soil and brought forth grain, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. Let anyone with ears listen!”
So, what is good soil for a Good News seed to fall into?
It is soil with enough depth so that roots have room to expand and take hold; soil that is not too dry, nor too wet – meaning rational, but with some expanse for mystery and wonder. Soil that has been turned and aerated, always open to new nutrients, always learning and wondering, alone and with others. (I’m sure there’s a place for worms and grubs and fertilizer in this metaphor….)
In the spirit of multiple and multi-layered meanings, I would also say we are not only in the good soil, we are called to be the good soil in which other seeds can grow into fruitfulness. Let’s take a look at our congregations from the perspective of being good soil:
- What might we change or develop in order to be better soil for those who want to grow in faith?
- How might we help transplant people we know into better spiritual soil so they can grow and thrive and bear good fruit in abundance?
So often Jesus talks about how we are made for fruitfulness, as he does again here. Seed that falls into good soil will bring forth fruit and multiply. Notice some multiply more than others – there is no competition. The point is to be a fruit-bearing seed, rooted in the good soil of God’s love, watered with the power of the Holy Spirit.
That’s a pretty good image to rest with in the summertime. Happy growing!
© Kate Heichler, 2026. To receive Water Daily by email each morning, subscribe here. Here are the bible readings for next Sunday. Water Daily is also a podcast – subscribe to it here on Apple, Spotify or your favorite podcast platform.
That’s a pretty good image to rest with in the summertime. Happy growing!
© Kate Heichler, 2026. To receive Water Daily by email each morning, subscribe here. Here are the bible readings for next Sunday. Water Daily is also a podcast – subscribe to it here on Apple, Spotify or your favorite podcast platform.
7-9-26 - Love Among Thorns
You can listen to this reflection here. Sunday's gospel reading is here.
In the parable Jesus tells about seeds taking root or withering, depending on where they fall, the forces that imperil them are by-products of a location, not the location itself – the birds that can pick seeds off a path, the sun that can scorch them on rocks. But now we come to a place which itself imperils a seed: “Other seeds fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked them.” When we try to plant the seeds of sacrificial love and other-directedness amid a thicket of competing claims… look out.
We sow love in a very thorny landscape. The cares of the world and the lure of wealth, to which Jesus likened the thorns in his story, are very strong in our culture, while traditional religious norms have become weaker. Some churches respond to diminishing fruitfulness by trying to place the benefits they offer among those other lures – “Look at the return you can get for your investment here!” Really large churches offer their own version of the competition, such as church-based banks, cafes and fitness centers.
The competing claims of wealth, family, security, recreation, status are a given. How might we embrace those goods without worshipping them?
What most chokes your desire to be connected to God?
In the parable Jesus tells about seeds taking root or withering, depending on where they fall, the forces that imperil them are by-products of a location, not the location itself – the birds that can pick seeds off a path, the sun that can scorch them on rocks. But now we come to a place which itself imperils a seed: “Other seeds fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked them.” When we try to plant the seeds of sacrificial love and other-directedness amid a thicket of competing claims… look out.
We sow love in a very thorny landscape. The cares of the world and the lure of wealth, to which Jesus likened the thorns in his story, are very strong in our culture, while traditional religious norms have become weaker. Some churches respond to diminishing fruitfulness by trying to place the benefits they offer among those other lures – “Look at the return you can get for your investment here!” Really large churches offer their own version of the competition, such as church-based banks, cafes and fitness centers.
The competing claims of wealth, family, security, recreation, status are a given. How might we embrace those goods without worshipping them?
What most chokes your desire to be connected to God?
For me, it's time and the to-do list. It can also be success – getting what you’ve always wanted. Even loved ones can choke our desire for God instead of directing us to that love.
What can we do about that?
How might we invite Jesus into our time management, our to-do lists, our relationship priorities? Some people set timers to remind them to stop and pray. Others make sure to take a prayer walk each day.
If our relationships or our work loom larger than our God-connection, maybe we can invite God to be more fully a part of those areas in our lives, and figure out how.
Today, let’s contemplate the thorns in which we occasionally find ourselves, and pray for them to be transformed into roses. God has an amazing way of taking what we offer, and not removing it from our lives, but consecrating it for us, making it holy, as God is ever making us holy. We need not fear the choking thorns when we turn daily to the source of our breath.
© Kate Heichler, 2026. To receive Water Daily by email each morning, subscribe here. Here are the bible readings for next Sunday. Water Daily is also a podcast – subscribe to it here on Apple, Spotify or your favorite podcast platform.
What can we do about that?
How might we invite Jesus into our time management, our to-do lists, our relationship priorities? Some people set timers to remind them to stop and pray. Others make sure to take a prayer walk each day.
If our relationships or our work loom larger than our God-connection, maybe we can invite God to be more fully a part of those areas in our lives, and figure out how.
Today, let’s contemplate the thorns in which we occasionally find ourselves, and pray for them to be transformed into roses. God has an amazing way of taking what we offer, and not removing it from our lives, but consecrating it for us, making it holy, as God is ever making us holy. We need not fear the choking thorns when we turn daily to the source of our breath.
© Kate Heichler, 2026. To receive Water Daily by email each morning, subscribe here. Here are the bible readings for next Sunday. Water Daily is also a podcast – subscribe to it here on Apple, Spotify or your favorite podcast platform.
7-8-26 - Of Rocks and Soil
You can listen to this reflection here. Sunday's gospel reading is here.
Rocks and sun are a perfect environment for lizards. For plants? Not so much…
We’ve probably all encountered the fervor of a convert – someone hot on a new thing they’ve learned or experienced. A new love, a new job, maybe a new diet. We may even have met a few Christians in the first throes of excitement about the love of God they’ve come to know in Christ. Sometimes it lasts, sometimes it doesn’t. It depends on the depth of soil that allows roots to grow.
Jesus continued, “Other seeds fell on rocky ground, where they did not have much soil, and they sprang up quickly, since they had no depth of soil. But when the sun rose, they were scorched; and since they had no root, they withered away.”
What conditions make for rocky soil? Sometimes familiarity can foster complacency – same old, same old… that’s a kind of rockiness. Preoccupation with other concerns can keep us from growing spiritual roots. An emotional climate of anger or anxiety or stress can keep our soil rocky.
What would you identify as the hot sun that causes the newly rooted plants to wither? Fear, anger, hatred… Also some of the enemies we named yesterday, like ambition, sorrow, overwork, stress.
What are the “hot suns” in your life that cause your spirit to become scorched and withered?
Are you feeling robust or withered as a spiritual person today? Might you walk that path with Jesus in your imagination and let him show you where you are today – on the path, on the rocks, in the deep soil? What does he suggest you do? I remember once being deep in prayer on a retreat. In the prayer time, I sensed Jesus say to me, “I want you to come be with me every morning, to water your roots.” That’s where the name Water Daily came from.
And what shall we do for those whom we see withering spiritually? Help transplant them into deeper soil, provide shade in the form of spiritual friendship - and sprinkle liberally with the Living Water gushing inside you, the Holy Spirit who renews all things in Christ.
© Kate Heichler, 2026. To receive Water Daily by email each morning, subscribe here. Here are the bible readings for next Sunday. Water Daily is also a podcast – subscribe to it here on Apple, Spotify or your favorite podcast platform.
Rocks and sun are a perfect environment for lizards. For plants? Not so much…
We’ve probably all encountered the fervor of a convert – someone hot on a new thing they’ve learned or experienced. A new love, a new job, maybe a new diet. We may even have met a few Christians in the first throes of excitement about the love of God they’ve come to know in Christ. Sometimes it lasts, sometimes it doesn’t. It depends on the depth of soil that allows roots to grow.
Jesus continued, “Other seeds fell on rocky ground, where they did not have much soil, and they sprang up quickly, since they had no depth of soil. But when the sun rose, they were scorched; and since they had no root, they withered away.”
What conditions make for rocky soil? Sometimes familiarity can foster complacency – same old, same old… that’s a kind of rockiness. Preoccupation with other concerns can keep us from growing spiritual roots. An emotional climate of anger or anxiety or stress can keep our soil rocky.
What would you identify as the hot sun that causes the newly rooted plants to wither? Fear, anger, hatred… Also some of the enemies we named yesterday, like ambition, sorrow, overwork, stress.
What are the “hot suns” in your life that cause your spirit to become scorched and withered?
Are you feeling robust or withered as a spiritual person today? Might you walk that path with Jesus in your imagination and let him show you where you are today – on the path, on the rocks, in the deep soil? What does he suggest you do? I remember once being deep in prayer on a retreat. In the prayer time, I sensed Jesus say to me, “I want you to come be with me every morning, to water your roots.” That’s where the name Water Daily came from.
And what shall we do for those whom we see withering spiritually? Help transplant them into deeper soil, provide shade in the form of spiritual friendship - and sprinkle liberally with the Living Water gushing inside you, the Holy Spirit who renews all things in Christ.
© Kate Heichler, 2026. To receive Water Daily by email each morning, subscribe here. Here are the bible readings for next Sunday. Water Daily is also a podcast – subscribe to it here on Apple, Spotify or your favorite podcast platform.
7-7-26 - Of Paths and Birds
You can listen to this reflection here. Sunday's gospel reading is here.
"Listen! A sower went out to sow. And as he sowed, some seeds fell on the path, and the birds came and ate them up."
Paths can be beautiful, but they’re not places for growing, are they? We call a path full of greenery “overgrown.” One of the first things I do when I get to our cottage in Michigan each summer is take a broom and reclaim the stone path down to the lake (laid by my great-grandmother…) from the weeds and sod encroaching upon its surfaces.
Paths are for journeying, arteries that carry us from one place for growing to another. When the Good News is told to people who are on the path, on the move, they may not receive it fully – it remains on the surface, easy pickings for other messages and other priorities that conflict with it.
And what might the birds represent, these entities that gobble up the newly scattered seed so it has no time to take root? Distractions, competing claims, yes – and perhaps something deeper: lies the Enemy tells us to undermine our ability to trust in the goodness of God, and the goodness of God in us. Those lies can take many forms, and are often disguised in advertising. Competitiveness. 60-80 hour workweeks. Stress. Anxiety. What’s on your list?
Today, name some paths in your life, in-between spaces on the way to a new thing. (Work can be a field, or a path; relationships can be a field or a path…)
What growing places in your life can you name and celebrate?
Do you know some people for whom the Word of God has fallen onto the path and been picked off?
How might you help them become rooted in good soil?
The birds are a given. They have their place. We just need to shoo them off when they threaten our spiritual health, or someone else’s.
Maybe being active and intentional in the Life of God is like putting netting over growing berries and vegetables – the sun and water get through, but the birds have to do their munching somewhere else.
© Kate Heichler, 2026. To receive Water Daily by email each morning, subscribe here. Here are the bible readings for next Sunday. Water Daily is also a podcast – subscribe to it here on Apple, Spotify or your favorite podcast platform.
"Listen! A sower went out to sow. And as he sowed, some seeds fell on the path, and the birds came and ate them up."
Paths can be beautiful, but they’re not places for growing, are they? We call a path full of greenery “overgrown.” One of the first things I do when I get to our cottage in Michigan each summer is take a broom and reclaim the stone path down to the lake (laid by my great-grandmother…) from the weeds and sod encroaching upon its surfaces.
Paths are for journeying, arteries that carry us from one place for growing to another. When the Good News is told to people who are on the path, on the move, they may not receive it fully – it remains on the surface, easy pickings for other messages and other priorities that conflict with it.
And what might the birds represent, these entities that gobble up the newly scattered seed so it has no time to take root? Distractions, competing claims, yes – and perhaps something deeper: lies the Enemy tells us to undermine our ability to trust in the goodness of God, and the goodness of God in us. Those lies can take many forms, and are often disguised in advertising. Competitiveness. 60-80 hour workweeks. Stress. Anxiety. What’s on your list?
Today, name some paths in your life, in-between spaces on the way to a new thing. (Work can be a field, or a path; relationships can be a field or a path…)
What growing places in your life can you name and celebrate?
Do you know some people for whom the Word of God has fallen onto the path and been picked off?
How might you help them become rooted in good soil?
The birds are a given. They have their place. We just need to shoo them off when they threaten our spiritual health, or someone else’s.
Maybe being active and intentional in the Life of God is like putting netting over growing berries and vegetables – the sun and water get through, but the birds have to do their munching somewhere else.
© Kate Heichler, 2026. To receive Water Daily by email each morning, subscribe here. Here are the bible readings for next Sunday. Water Daily is also a podcast – subscribe to it here on Apple, Spotify or your favorite podcast platform.
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