George Fisher is Emeritus Professor of Geology at Johns Hopkins University and a retired faculty member of the Ecumenical Institute of St. Mary’s Seminary. His professional life was devoted first to studying Appalachian geology, then to exploring the interplay between scientific and religious understandings of nature. In retirement, he continues to write on connections between the Earth sciences and our Biblical tradition. The Old and New Testaments both remind us that our religious ancestors sensed sacredness in creation from the very beginning. For Christians, the Incarnation is the clearest evidence of that opportunity. Modern science can enrich our ability to see the sacred in nature, and deepen our understanding of scripture. As an example, I will reflect on Jesus’ parable of the sower from an ecological perspective, which allows us to see the parable as a metaphor for successive stages of spiritual development that can lead to personal transformation, rather than three failures followed by a single success.