The Book of Psalms opens with a comparison between those whose joy is in the law of the Lord and those who take advice from the wicked. This is the story of a boy who wants to be generous while his brothers seek to only take care of themselves.
You can read this story on this website or you can download a PDF printout along with discussion questions here:
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The Boy and the Seeds
There was a boy with many older brothers living on a farm. Each day one of the brothers sold food at the marketplace to earn some extra income for the family. The extra money wasn’t much, but every little bit helped because their parents had died many years ago.
One day the youngest son came back without any money.
“Why didn’t you sell anything today?” asked a brother.
“Oh but I did! I sold all that I took with me. I earned these two seeds as payment.” The boy showed the brothers two large seeds.
“What kind of seeds are they?” asked a brother.
“They are the seeds of a great tree,” said the boy. “Where shall I plant them?”
“In our fields, of course!” shouted the brothers for they were very selfish.
“We must use this seed to feed our family,” said another.
“But what of the other crops in our fields?” asked the boy. “Won’t the tree steal the sun and the water that they need?”
“The seed is ours,” scoffed a brother. “Would you rather give it to our neighbors to take from freely?”
“Go now and plant the seed in our fields!” said another brother.
The boy left and went out into their fields. He planted one seed there to please his brothers, but the other he carried with him away from the farm.
After traveling for a time he arrived at a place with many streams of water in a valley near their home. He and his brothers didn’t own the land. No one owned it, but many came there to gather water.
The boy carefully planted his seed near the streams of water and returned home.
Time went by and the trees grew much faster than any normal tree. The following harvest season came and it was time to gather the crops in the fields.
The tree in the brothers’ field grew so tall that it did cast shade on the fields just as the boy predicted. It stole all the water needed for the crops as well and the fields had barely enough food to feed their family.
“We are cursed!” said the brothers.
The boy ran off towards the streams to see the other tree he planted. When he arrived, he looked in amazement. There stood a great tree with green leaves and many fruits. He gathered the fruit and brought it home to show the brothers.
“See! This is the fruit from a tree I planted near many streams of water. It bore many fruits. It will be shared among all those who need it while we have ruined our crops for the year,” said the boy.
The brothers were ashamed. They cut down the tree in their field and shared the fruit of the tree near the streams until the next year when they could begin planting new crops again.
“He is like a tree planted near streams of water, that yields its fruit in season. Its leaves never wither; whatever he does prospers.”
Psalm 1:3
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You can read this story on this website or you can download a PDF printout along with discussion questions here:
