A single apple seed that finds its way to fertile soil will in time spring up into a tree with many dozens of apples, all containing multiple seeds. Any one apple holds within itself a potential orchard. And yet without fertile soil, water, and sunshine, the vast potential is not even partially realized. Similarly, every seed of truth or spiritual insight offers the potential for spiritual growth and healing, but we need to consider the soil—the state of consciousness—that may receive or reject the seed of truth.

In the first of Christ Jesus’ parables recorded in the book of Matthew, the Master describes a sower casting seeds that fall onto four kinds of ground: 1) the wayside ground, where the seeds get eaten up by birds; 2) stony soil, where stones prevent the plants’ roots from reaching deep, and the poorly rooted plants wither in the sunlight; 3) ground with thorns, where the plants spring up but are choked by surrounding thorns that grow up around them; and 4) fertile soil, where the plants spring up abundantly (see Matthew 13:3–9).

Is the parable telling us there are four types of people and only the fourth type has much hope of experiencing spiritual growth and healing? If that were the case, we could perhaps all take a personality test to find out if we’re spiritually “in” or “out.” But that would be a far cry from our Master’s emphasis on the importance of repentance. At its root, repent means to change your mind or consciousness. If we take the four kinds of ground described in the parable to represent states of consciousness, and recognize that consciousness can be improved or spiritualized, that opens the door of thought into a wider sphere of instruction (see Matthew 13:18–23). For instance, many people get distracted by the thorns of worldly attractions and preoccupations at some time or other. At such times, the soil of consciousness needs to be turned, and our hearts realigned with the great truth of God’s allness and goodness, in order to move forward spiritually.

In her chief work, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, Mary Baker Eddy stresses this point, drawing imagery from this same parable: “The spiritual sense of truth must be gained before Truth can be understood. This sense is assimilated only as we are honest, unselfish, loving, and meek. In the soil of an ‘honest and good heart’ the seed must be sown; else it beareth not much fruit, for the swinish element in human nature uproots it” (p. 272).

I had an experience that illustrated the healing effect that results when our state of mind moves from dull and distracted to spiritually receptive and focused. I was on a work-related trip on the West Coast of the United States when my wife called early one morning from our home on the opposite side of the country. She reported that our young daughter was running a high temperature, had vomited, and seemed lethargic and low-spirited in contrast to her usual cheerful exuberance. I thoroughly studied the Christian Science Bible Lesson that morning before undertaking some planned activities, and I continued to pray for my daughter during the day. As I was traveling by cab to the airport for my trip home in the early afternoon, I was troubled that my prayer seemed to be going in and out of focus. I’d be praying, and, before I knew it, my thought would have drifted into one stream or another of irrelevance.

Once I boarded the plane, I resolved to cut through the hypnotic mental haze that would have me working halfheartedly. Before giving my daughter a spiritual treatment, I first prayed to lay hold on the clarity of spiritual wisdom, understanding, and focus that I naturally reflect as a child of the one God, who is omniscient, divine Mind. This spiritual work, this prayer, included the following: “God, Mind, is giving me the consciousness that is inspired, disciplined, wise, and spiritually responsive. This enables me to perceive and hold to the truth of God and all that He creates and governs.”

These truths had the effect of clearing the ground of my consciousness of the thorns of worldly distraction that had been choking my attempts at sustained prayer. Once the ground was clear and the soil turned, I prayed along these lines for my daughter: “Material law, so called, is illusion. Spiritual law is supreme fact. This all-powerful divine law of good completely governs my child and sustains her wholeness, freedom, and perfection. Mortal mind can no more prevent my child from reflecting and expressing the immortal goodness of her Father-Mother God than an amoeba can prevent the sun from rising.”

I later learned that my wife had been struggling with a similar lack of focus and clear inspiration, but at the same time that I claimed my spiritually alert consciousness as the expression of divine Mind, there was a breakthrough at home. My wife began to feel that our family was encompassed by Love, and our little girl started perking up and expressing more of the joy she usually radiates. By the next morning, our daughter was brimming with her normal joyful vitality, entirely free of fever and the various accompanying symptoms.

The preparation of the soil of human consciousness certainly requires something of us. Our preparation involves striving to open our thought to God, the source of all true consciousness. When our thought becomes more receptive to the life-giving purity of spiritual blessing and the sunlight of Truth, then the seeds of understanding naturally blossom into healing in our lives.