네 가지 밭에 떨어진 씨앗

A Story by the Water

One morning, a great crowd gathered by the blue lake. People pressed close to hear a teacher named Jesus. There were so many that he stepped into a boat. He pushed out a little way from the sandy shore. The small waves tapped the boat like a soft drum. The people sat down on the beach to listen.

Jesus loved to teach with stories. This story was about a farmer and his seeds. "A farmer went out to sow his seeds," he began. To sow means to scatter seeds over the ground. Long ago, farmers threw their seeds by hand. The seeds flew everywhere and landed in different places.

The Path and the Rocks

Some seeds fell on the hard path beside the field. People had walked on that path for many years. The dirt was packed down, flat and hard. The seeds could not sink in at all. They just sat on top, easy to see. Soon the birds swooped down and ate every one.

Other seeds fell on rocky ground with thin soil. Soil is the soft dirt where plants can grow. Here there was only a little of it. The seeds sprouted fast, and green shoots popped up. But their roots hit rock and could not go deep. When the hot sun rose, the little plants dried out. Without deep roots, they had no water to drink. By evening they were brown and bent over.