An Old Polish Parable

• PostEagle
• February 15, 2016
• Church / Religion News
• 0 Comments

I have another Polish Parable for today. This is a story about two Polish cabbage seeds. Their names were Kaziu Kapusta and Karolek Kapusta. They were healthy young seeds and often, as they rested in the seed bin in the barn, they would talk about their futures. Kaziu wanted to grow up to be a big cabbage head and someday be made into a big pot of golabki with maybe a little left over for some Kapusta soup. Karolek, on the other hand, wanted to grow into a giant head of cabbage so as to fill a whole barrel with sauerkraut! The two cabbage seeds talked about their plans all day, discussing various and wonderful Polish recipes for exotic cabbage dishes from cabbage stuffed pierogi to bigos.

Well, the day finally came and old farmer Stas came into the barn to plant the seeds. But when Karolek saw what was happening he was horrified. “No way am I going to be stuffed into that dirt and drenched with water…. Yuk! I will not be buried in mud!” he screamed. “I want the beautiful sun to make me grow clean and fat!” So, before Kaziu could argue with him, Karolek jumped out of the seed box and ran to a big rock in the center of the field. There he perched himself on the rock where he could see everything that was going on. Laying back on the rock he said, “This is the life… high and dry… in the wonderful warm sun.” He looked on and disgustedly saw Kaziu being gently put into the soil and watered.

Then as the days went by Karolik, in the hot sun, began to shrivel up, when suddenly, a big crow came down and in one gulp swallowed poor Karolik.

Kaziu on the other hand was warm and safe in the earth. He began to grow and grow and soon he felt the sun and the rain, and the wonderful summer air. Happily, he said, “Old farmer Stas knew what he was doing.” Soon Kaziu was the biggest and most beautiful head of cabbage in the field. And when Harvest came, Kaziu fulfilled his dream and became the most delicious pot of golabki and Kapusta soup, and even a few pierogi.

The moral to the story is that by trusting the farmer, the seed had a wonderful future; but on its own, the seed had no chance at all and soon withered up and died.

That is what Jesus is telling us in the Gospels. With Jesus, and trusting in Him, we have life here and now, and forever. Without Jesus, on our own, we will only wither up and die…. Forever!

It may at first seem hard, and we may be tempted to go it on our own – to find a nice sunny rock away from God; but to grow and prosper, we need the help of God, we need to trust in Jesus, and we need to put ourselves in His hands.

Karolik on the sunny rock shriveled up and died. Kazik trusted and put himself into the care of the farmer and had life.

With God, we have it all…. On our own, we just shrivel up!