The pansy

As I was working in my yard yesterday, I noticed that weeds had sprung up in the cracks of the driveway. I decided to attack them with my burst of energy. As I worked my way along the line between the driveway and the sidewalk, I had to yank hard on the weeds and avoid the millions of ants that I had disturbed. They seem to have built their home there! Down the row I came upon a tiny pansy growing in the crack, with it's purple face upturned to the sun. Obviously some bird had dropped a seed and it had sprouted and bloomed. I was careful to weed around it and warn Jon to be careful and not run over it with his car.
This pansy made me think of the parable that Jesus told of the sower and the seed.
Some of the seed fell on the path and birds snatched it up and it was gone.
Some of the seed fell on the rocky places and it sprang up quickly. But because the soil was shallow, when the sun came up, it scorched the plants and they died.
Some fell among the thorns and was choked out and did not bear fruit.
Some fell on good soil and produced a harvest 30, 60 and even 100 times what was planted.
God pointed out that the pansy was like my dear friend, Nancy. She has been growing despite difficult trials at work and faith stretching problems at home. She has even bloomed and become fragrant with the peace of Christ, so that others around her are encouraged. The faith God planted in her heart, like the seed dropped in my driveway, has stood the tests of life.