Good Ground, Good Fruit (Buona Terra, Buon Frutto)

As we continue our journey through the Italian New Testament, we have finished the book of Matteo, Matthew; and have already crossed over into Marco, Mark. But before we look into our first scriptures in Marco, let me just mention a previous lesson from Matteo 25. It was about the talents a man gave to his servants and it talked about different forms of the word fruit in Italian: including fruttare, as well as the phrase farli fruttare. (Briefly,  farli fruttare means to yield, or you could say "to make fruitful.")

And here in Marco 4:8 a form of the word fruit is used again, (this time, in both the English and Italian translations this time).

It's the parable of the sower and the seed and therefore speaks of the ground or the earth, la terra.

There are many lessons in this familiar parable, but the basis of it is something Italians tend to be very aware of. Not just that you have to sow seed to get a harvest, but also that you can't just sow it any old place… At least not if you want to have a good harvest and bring forth much fruit.

For this, you have to sow your seed nella buona terra, in good ground.

It seems that Italians in general, even those who live in the cities, are more in touch with and dare I say, more appreciative, of their land. They know that la terra,  must be nurtured and well taken care of. Because if it is, it will yield a lot of good fruit and feed them well.

We should have this same attitude about how we receive the Word of God into our hearts.

We can hear the Word, la Parola, but our hearts must be buona terra, good ground. The Word has to be received by faith if it is to take root and bring forth fruit in our lives.

So constantly check to see if your heart is truly open to the Word of God. If you find yourself becoming bitter, unforgiving, doing a lot of doubting, etc., then it's time to pray. It's time to ask God to break up those things in our hearts that aren't pleasing to Him, so that we not only hear the Word but have it take root, apply it and bring forth 30 or 60 or even 100 fold in our lives… Now that's what I call "buon frutto," good fruit!