Guarding the entrance to the South Oval at the University of Oklahoma is a statue of the “sower.” This statue mirrors the image that fills the center of the University’s official seal.
Though a symbolic image, the sower’s face was patterned after David Ross Boyd, OU’s first President, who arrived in Norman in 1892, and found not a single tree around campus. The story goes that President Boyd spent nearly half of his salary those first few years planting seeds that would turn into nearly 10,000 trees, turning our city from clay soil prairie to what is nationally recognized as one of the most beautiful University campuses in the United States.
President Boyd, a Christian man, held a chapel service each day on campus. During one of these chapel services, he compared the University’s mission as sowing seeds of knowledge in students’ hearts, using the “Parable of the Sower” from Jesus’ teaching as his inspiration.
This Sunday at Wildwood Community Church, we will be looking at the “Parable of the Sower” from Luke 8:4-15 in part 2 of our series “Feeding the Flock.” In this message we will see that Jesus sows God’s truth in us with a desire to turn the “barren prairie” of our lives into beautiful landscapes of His righteousness. As this seed is sown, however, there are three enemies that will attempt to prevent this intended transformation in our lives. We will see what Jesus says about this Sunday in our 8:30, 9:45, and 11:00 services. Hope to see you there … and bring friends!