Janet Mathistad is a Lutheran pastor in Minot, ND. She writes: "One aspect of this text that has interested me is that even in the good soil, there was such a difference of yields. I got an insight into one answer back in 1993, when I had just married my husband, who is a farmer.  That was the summer that the Mississippi River flooded, and our area of North Dakota received 13 inches of rain in June (our total average annual moisture is only 17 inches). A phenomenon happened in Todd's durum fields that he referred to as "stooling out." Whereas normally, each seed sends up one stalk and produces one head of wheat, when the weather is cooler and wetter, the grain will send up a second and even a third stalk. The yield is therefore abundantly greater."

Pastor Janet continues. "I see it as an example of something that humans have no control over. If the wheat stools out, it is not because the farmer was especially clever or because the soil was so good, but because the weather conditions were right. It seems that in farming or in ministry, we can sow, but we cannot guarantee results. We can give it our best effort, but cannot completely control the outcome. Only God can do that. And God is convinced that in the end, when it comes to [that] harvest the results will be abundant."