I heard a quote from Steve Harvey this week about dirt. He said, "when you get some dirt on you, use it like fertiliser and grow from it." (Steve Harvey, April 2023)

The symbolism in these words is great. It made me think…

Baptism washes away our sins with water, but inevitably after we are baptised, we start to sin again and could start to feel spiritually ‘dirty’.

Or you may not have been baptised at all and feel like you have done too many bad things for God to care about you.

But that's no time to give up.

Lots of good things grow or are extracted from the dirt – plants for example! The key is to want to live for God, to push through the sin that surrounds you and grow towards God with all your energy.

Jesus used the example of a seed a few times in different parables. A seed can start tiny and end up as a huge tree.

So, if you have even the smallest amount of interest in God or Jesus, no matter how bad you might think you are, if you allow yourself to grow towards God, you might get a surprise as to how great your love for God can become.