Tag: Seeds

First Fruits

I have sugar snaps! Small green pods emerged from the white blossoms. The pods grew long and fat in the cool, wet weather until finally they are ready for harvest. What a gift!

I walk along the vines, shorter than I would like them to be, and pinch off the larger peas. The peas hide behind the leaves and blend in with the stalks, hiding themselves from my eager hands. These are the first fruits of the sugar snaps, the first fruits of my garden.

I take a bite, sweet and crunchy, and another as I savor the freshness of the peas, and the moisture from the morning dew. I eat a few more before I remember I need to take a picture of my harvest!

That a delicious fruit would emerge from the seed I planted is February is a small miracle, a common one, but miraculous all the same. The plant grew, reached out, drew itself higher. It took nutrients and water from the ground and used the sun’s warmth to transform these elements into a living, growing thing. Flowers appeared from nowhere and produced fruit. Somehow, the knowledge, ability, and desire to do these things was contained in miniscule DNA of the seed I planted. And people say there is no God!

Ask the plants of the earth and they will teach you; and the fish of the sea will declare to you. Who among you does not know that the hand of the Lord has done this? Job 12:8-9.

This has been a chaotic spring for me. I dedicated myself to polishing my first novel, attending writers’ conferences, and submitting my work for review and critique. I have not given my garden the attention it has received in the past, but God has rewarded the effort I did extend to it by producing these incredible peas.

He has rewarded my efforts in other ways as well – speaking engagements, continued book sales, a growing readership, and recognition from the Association of Christian Fiction Writers. It’s been a busy and productive spring for me, and this harvest is the perfect transition to the coming summer.

The temptation is to think that my dedication and my efforts made any of this happen. But I did not make the seed grow. I merely planted the seed and tended the garden. I set aside my desires to binge-watch mindless television and allowed God to produce fruit in my life. And what joy and affirmation that fruit brings!

Will I let Him grow gentleness in me? Patience? He has produced joy when I thought I would never feel it again. He is producing self-discipline, a fruit I never thought I would bear. Did He plant miniscule DNA in me that contained the knowledge, ability, and desire to bear these fruits? Are the in the DNA of the Holy Spirit which He sent to live in me?

And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate to be with you forever. This is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, because he abides with you, and he will be in you. John 14:16-17.

The appearance of fruit continues to amaze me. Whether it’s a sugar snap or the word not spoken, God blesses me with fruit. Sometimes, I feel the fruit will never arrive, but it always appears at the perfect time. As if God knows, because He does.

Whether you are waiting to blossom, watching your fruit grow, or enjoying a bountiful harvest, know that God wants to produce delicious fruit through you – fruit that will refresh and nourish the world.

Love in Christ, Betsy

Growth

It stopped raining long enough for me to check on my sugar snaps. They love this weather. The ground is fully saturated with water and the air is warm. Far enough from the creek to escape the flood, my growing plants cling to the supports and pull themselves ever taller.

What makes them grow? What makes the dried-up seed pods transform into these lovely plants?

I found the remnants of a seed packet in the garage the other day. There were still seeds in it. I guess I had saved them for bare spots and never planted them. They were still dried up little pods. Certainly, those little seeds had as much potential as the ones I planted. But I had not buried them in the ground and exposed them to storms and predators. I had left them safe in the bag, just in case. How pitiful they seem next to my luscious sugar snaps.

I’m planting them in the ground. It’s late in the season and the seeds are old, but they are no good to me as they are. Who knows? Maybe they will burst forth and become late season sugar snaps. At least they will have the opportunity.

For he says, “At an acceptable time I have listened to you, and on a day of salvation I have helped you.” See, now is the acceptable time, now is the day of salvation. 2 Corinthians 6:2.

The Bible tells us that with God all things are possible, nothing is impossible. (Matt. 19:26, Mark 10:27, Mark 9:23, Luke 1:37, Luke 18:27, Phil. 4:13, Gen. 18:14, Job 42:2, Jer. 32:17.)

I see it all around me. I see it every day in the garden. God takes worthless seeds and makes them grow and flower and produce fruit.

What can He do with our lives if we give Him the opportunity?

Not that it will all be easy. We can’t sit in our little packet and sleep all day. We will be exposed to weather and dangers and new experiences. We will have to stretch out fragile tendrils and grasp onto sturdy supports. We will have to learn which supports draw us closer to the sun and which keep us from upward growth. We will change. And change can be scary and difficult.

But if asked if I would rather be a seed in a packet or a luscious green vine bearing fruit, I’m choosing the vine every time.

So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation; everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new! 2 Corinthians 5:17.

Bare tree limbs burst forth in green leaves. Brown and brittle yards transform into fields of green grass and vibrant wildflowers. Strong winds bring us massive storms, then whisk them away to leave us clear blue skies. Water overflows the creek beds and then soaks into the soil, where it is saved in underground reservoirs. See, everything is becoming new.

I hope these growing sugar snaps encourage you as much as they encourage me. They are not hindered by what they used to be. What they used to be contained the core that allowed them to become what they are today, the nucleus of what they will become in the future. Now they are green and growing. Now they clasp hands with others growing beside them. Now they wrap their tendril tightly to the support and extend themselves, moving ever upward.

Yes, I want to be a fruit-bearing vine. I want to be like my sugar snaps.

So I say to you, Ask and it will be given you; search and you will find; knock and the door will be opened. … If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him! Luke 11:9, 13.

If we ask Him, God will transform us. God will help us grow and bear fruit. Because with God, nothing is impossible.

Love in Christ, Betsy

Everyday Miracles

The sugar snaps are up! I expected it to happen, even though there have been years when it didn’t. I made plans for their emergence from the ground and their upward growth, but after I plant the seeds, what happens is beyond my control.

Weather, storms, predators, toxins in the ground, so many possible dangers to the little seeds, so many forces which could prevent their growth. But here they are! Bursting from their dried-up pods through the dark soil, and into the sunlight.

I could have chosen not to plant the seeds, knowing there was a chance they wouldn’t sprout. I could look at their growth and consider it a given. (Of course they grew – no mystery here.) But I see God at work in these growing plants.

Where do they get their motivation to grow? What draws them from their shell and transforms them? What makes them reach for the sun? Did they know that such a future awaited them? Do they know even now the bountiful harvest they will one day produce?

Do we?

For we are what he has made us, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand to be our way of life. Ephesians 2:10.

In the darkness of the earth, these seeds surrendered their hard protective coating and let God transform them. They rooted themselves in the fertile soil and reached out beyond their cozy homes. They pushed into the wider world, braving cold temperatures, predators, and weeds.

They are becoming what God intended them to be – healthy, growing, fruit-producing plants.

Not all the seeds make this transformation. There are bald spots in the garden. Perhaps the birds stole the seeds. Perhaps the cardboard meant to suppress weeds had the unintended consequence of suppressing the seed. (Is there a lesson here?) Perhaps the sudden freeze just as they were emerging was too much for the young plant.

I could focus on the bare spots, but I will not. I rejoice in the miracle of healthy sugar snap plants. Soon they will grow and expand. Soon these little plants will grasp the supports around them and pull themselves skyward, filling my garden with healthy plants. At least I pray that will happen.

Because I can’t make it happen, just as I can’t make myself patient and loving. This transformation, this growth is a gift from God, an everyday miracle. Like the flowers on the budding trees, like the greening grass and the transforming dandelions, God is at work in our world in everyday miracles.

In nature and in us, God is at work. He is using the rain, the sunshine, the dirt, and the heat to draw us ever skyward, ever toward the sun, His Son. He is giving us what we need to grow.

The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases, his mercies never come to an end; they are new each morning; great is your faithfulness. “The Lord is my portion,” says my soul, “therefore I will hope in him.” The Lord is good to those who wait for him, to the soul that seeks him. It is good that one should wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord. Lamentations 3:22-26.

The steadfast love of our Lord. New mercies every morning. A God who loves, saves, and provides. Sometimes it is easy to look at the bare spots. Sometimes, I doubt His transforming power. Sometimes, I take his provision for granted. But when I see these growing plants, He reminds me that He is at work in our world, creating everyday miracles.

Love in Christ, Betsy

Potential

I hold seeds in my hand. Within them there is the potential to be tall green plants covered in white blossoms and dangling pea pods.

Potential. Growing up, I hated that word. Embedded in the compliment, I heard the complaint. I could do something, but I wasn’t. If I just apply myself, work a little harder, invest a little more, I could become the person they thought I could and should be. But obviously I wasn’t doing that, and I wasn’t the person they wanted me to be. I was, instead, a slacker.

My sense was that they were looking at a sugar snap seed and wanting me to produce tomatoes. Perhaps that is unfair. Perhaps they were just looking at a seed and wanting it to grow.

Here’s the lesson of the seed, though. Me wanting the seed to grow, and it having the potential to grow, does not make it grow. I cannot make that happen. The seed cannot make that happen. Only God can.

We have roles to play. If the seed is not good, or not a sugar snap seed, it will not produce sugar snaps. If I do not put it in the ground and water it, it will not transform. If I do not support the vine’s growth or protect it from predators, the harvest will be damaged. The garden is a cooperative effort between God and me, between nature and the seed.

But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God, who were born, not of blood or of the will of the flesh or of the will of man, but of God. John 1:12-13.

The seed is not enough, even if it has potential. And my desire for the seed cannot transform it into what I want it to be. God, through the amazing architecture of nature, has embedded a nucleus of a fruit-bearing plant in this seed. He alone gives it the power to become all that it has the potential to be.

God has embedded the nucleus of a fruit-bearing soul in me and you. We can help or hinder the transformation of that seed into a healthy, loving, spirit-filled life, but we can’t make it happen. Not by the will of man.

We need to put that seed of ourselves into the hands of God. He alone knows what we have the potential to be.

And this seed is one of hundreds. I will plant all of them. Hopefully, all of them will be transformed into fruit-bearing vines. Often, when we talk about God’s will for our lives, our purpose, we think we have a unique role. We don’t want to be like everyone else. We want to be special. That is pride, my friend. While every snowflake is unique, it takes thousands of snowflakes to carpet the ground in white.

A garden succeeds when multiple plants bring forth the same fruit.

What would our world look like if hundreds or thousands of us stood together and were loving and kind and peaceful? What if wide swaths of us were patient and gentle and joyful?

The Holy Spirit can produce that fruit in us. That is our true potential. We have been given the power to be children of God. God wants us to be a beautiful garden of healthy trees planted beside the river, bearing fruit continuously, and healing the nations (Revelations 22).

I think that is what God sees when he holds the seed of us in His hands. He sees our potential.

Now to him who by the power at work within us is able to accomplish abundantly far more than all we can ask or imagine, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen. Ephesians 3:20-21.

Love in Christ, Betsy

Good News!

God did it! Sugar snaps have burst from their shell and are reaching for the sun!

Why did I doubt? Why was I worried?

God gifted those seeds with the impulse to grow. Even in their dried-out, lifeless state, inside they held the desire to become more. I just had to give them the chance, the opportunity.

I planted these seeds the first week of March. They have overcome the crabgrass roots, dried clippings, and the cardboard. They have grown without me tilling the soil. In this week before Easter, I praise God for bringing life when I doubted He could. How amazing is our God!

I was focused on what could go wrong and forgot what joy God gives us in His creation.

In there world you will have tribulation. But take heart: I have overcome the world. John 16:33 (ESV)

The sugar snaps overcome the crabgrass; Jesus overcame the pharisees, overcame the Romans, overcame sin, and overcame death.

It’s Holy Week. Jesus had entered Jerusalem to praise and adulation, but He knew what was coming. Violence, abuse, betrayal, abandonment, and death; emotional, physical, and spiritual torture. Followed by the greatest gift of grace and power and love ever bestowed on humanity. He suffers with us; He rises to re-write our lives.

Seeds sprouting and becoming plants is old news. It happens all the time. Nothing new here; move on.

But wait! A lifeless, old, dried out kernel was buried, and now it’s a living plant! What an amazing transformation, life-altering, life-giving, inspirational.

God does it. God does it all the time.

God transforms seeds. God transforms marriages. God transforms congregations. God transforms cities and nations. God transforms people. God transforms me and you.

And all if us, with unveiled faces, seeing the glory of the Lord reflected in a mirror, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another; for this comes from the Lord, the Spirit. 2 Cointhians 3:18.

If you are looking at God and seeing His glory, He is transforming you into His likeness. God has put within you the desire to break out of your shell and reach for Him.

Sometimes, we may need to sit in the dirt for a while before He transforms us. God has created nature in such a way that seeds grow out of dirt; perhaps He created us in such a way as well.

Very truly, I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain, but if it dies, it bears much fruit. Those who love their life lose it, and those who hate their life in this world will keep it for eternal life. John 12:24-25.

This Holy Week, the seeds I planted lost their lives as seeds, and have become what they were intended to be, beautiful sugar snap plants.

I don’t want to stay a seed either. I want to grow and bear fruit. That may take some radical altering of my life. If God calls me to change the life I am now living, am I willing to give it up?

I will listen for His voice. He loves me. He loves me so much that He endured this week of unbelievable distress and suffering just to call me sister. He lost His earthly life for me, for you.

But to all who received him, who believed in his name. he gave the power to become children of God, who were born, not of blood or of the will of the flesh or of the will of man, but of God. John 1:12-13.

Good News!

God did it!

Happy Easter, Betsy

Your Move, God

The sugar snap seeds are in the ground. The ball is in the air; will it go in the basket?

I cut rows out of the cardboard and swathes of dead grasses in roughly half of the allotted space. I buried the seeds in the dark, moist soil, waited ten days, and repeated the process for the rest of the space.

Will they grow?

To encourage their growth, I watered the seeds immediately. To protect the seeds from birds, I erected the bean poles and cages. Now I wait. Stare at the ground, move the cardboard strips slightly to the right, slightly to the left, clear the path for any emerging plants, hope the plants are sugar snaps.

When I planted the seeds, the soil was laced with crabgrass roots. They weren’t finding space to send forth shoots but reaching across my garden to grow beside it. Tilling would have disrupted, cut, and severed these roots. In my no-till garden, I must wait to see if my sugar snaps can overcome them. I must trust the benefits of not tilling outweigh the risks.

I’m a little scared. Isn’t that silly?

I have had sugar snap crops fail before; my world didn’t end. The flooding creek, overpowering weeds, and bad soil have all led to failed sugar snap crops. Nick and I didn’t even plant sugar snaps when we chose to travel during harvest time. Yet, I so want these to survive, thrive, succeed.

The sugar snaps are in the ground, Lord. It’s Your move now.

Only God through His life-sustaining natural processes can transform a seed into a plant. Each green shoot that bursts forth from its shell is a tiny miracle, one I will wait for with anticipation.

The kingdom of God is as if someone would scatter seed on the ground, and would sleep and rise night and day, and the seed would sprout and grow, he does not know how. Mark 4:26-27.

Is God growing something in my life, in your life, right now? Have you planted seeds and fear the outcome? What if the obstacles are too great? What if the weeds overtake? Should I have done something else, something new, something old? What if I fail?

Do not fear, for I am with you; do not be afraid, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my victorious right hand. Psalm 41:10.

Even if I do fail. Even if the sugar snaps don’t take, don’t grow, don’t thrive, God is with me, and I need not fear.

I have faith that God is in charge whether my sugar snaps succeed or fail, whether I succeed or fail. I will do my best, give my best, but His plan is the one that matters. I will water those seeds daily, limit the obstacles in their path, and protect them from predators. Their growth is up to God.

Those little seeds will face challenges. Crabgrass roots crisscross their home, birds watch for the opportunity to snatch them, both cold and heat will assail them. But God has put a desire inside them to transform into all that He designed them to be.

God has put that desire in inside me as well. I also want to transform into all that God designed me to be. I want to break from this shell, grow roots, reach for the sun, and bear fruit. I will face challenges, challenges which will make me stronger if I hold onto my faith.

My brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of any kind, consider it nothing but joy, because you know that the testing of your faith produces endurance, and let endurance have its full effect, so that you may be mature and complete, lacking in nothing. James 1:3-4.

My challenge today is to not be anxious or worry about my sugar snaps.

The sugar snap seeds are in the ground. It’s your move, God.

Betsy

The Seed and the Psalm

The little sweet pea seeds are in the ground. I must let them sit in the dirt; I must wait on the weather and God to transform them. There is little I can do to speed up the process or even check on it. This transformation from seed to sprout is something that must go on inside the seed as it sits alone in the dark soil.

I have felt like that little seed before. Covered with dirt; alone in the dark.

Even when there are those who care for me and make sure I have sunlight and water, I was not sure that I would ever become more than the lifeless shell I was at that moment.

I am weary with my moaning; every night I flood my bed with tears; I drench my couch with weeping. Psalm 6:6

In grief counseling, my pastor had me write a psalm. I found it the other day, folded and hidden away in my Bible. The paper was still crisp and clean, untouched and avoided. Perhaps the pain expressed in it needed time, just as my sweet pea seeds do.

Even as I read the words now, the back of my throat constricts and the tears form. How can this still hurt so much?

There is hope hidden in the pain; a willingness to let God lead me out of the darkness. There is faith that a plant will grow, but that space is dark and lonely.

I thought I would share it with you, maybe expose this dark space to a little light.

Betsy’s Psalm of Lament (1/25/20)

You are with me, Lord, but this is hard.

It hurts my heart, my soul, my body.

               It challenges who I am.

You must have some plan, some good in mind,

               but how will you bring Joy out of this?!

How long will this hurt? How long before I feel joy? Or Love?

               How long before “normal” returns to me?

               It all feels so wrong without him.

It is tempting to just give up, give in;

               to shut the door, lock myself in and die.

But I will trust in You, Lord.

               I will turn my face to You

               and see Your presence all around me.

I will open the door and go outside this painful space.

You have surrounded me with friends.

               I will let them hold me, and I will sing Your praise.

We are so uncomfortable around grief, around pain. If expressed too openly, we doubt its authenticity. We fear doing or saying the wrong thing, adding insult to injury. We don’t have the words to express grief or comfort the grieving. Odd, really, since we have all experienced loss since childhood. How has the loss of a toy, a pet, a grandparent, not trained us for losing a dream, a parent or a spouse? Why do I find my own pain so difficult to expose? Is not grief as common as seeds in the ground?

I will admit fear in even sharing this with you. This is my space; I am not sure I want you in it. I fear you may take this a cry for help, but it is not. This is simply an admission that I do cry, as do most of you.

Very slowly, God has lifted me from that dark space. God has surrounded me with the warmth of friends, the light of His Word, and the life giving water of prayer. The seed of grief did crack open, allowing a tender sprout to reach for the sun, reach for the Son.

Amazing, really.

A new heart I will give you, and a new spirit I will put within you; and I will remove from your body the heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. Ezekiel 36:26

I go out to the garden every day in anticipation of sweet pea sprouts pushing through the ground. I start every morning in prayer with God, in anticipation of what He is growing in me. And I will sing God’s praise.

Betsy

This little Seed

Seeds so tiny they look like dirt in my hand. My aging eyes can barely separate them from each other. The package says these could generate 150 3-foot plants. Hmm. My cynical side finds that difficult to believe.

I am trying something new this year. The flower that these seeds grow supposedly repels chipmunks, squirrels and deer. I plan to plant them among the tomatoes in late April. We shall see.

Why do I tamp down my expectations like this? Has God not shown us over thousands of years that He will turn these tiny specks into plants? Has He not shown others just how big the plants these seeds contain can become? I have instructions, directions, testimonies from others; why do I doubt? One thing is for sure: If I don’t plant them, they will remain only seeds.

To look at these little black specks and see a 3-foot plant with white petals and a red center; is that not faith?

Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. Hebrews 11:1

Every tree in my yard started as a seed. Every tree in your yard started as a seed. A seed which looked absolutely nothing like the tree it became. A forest is like a testimony to God’s ability to transform something seemingly dead into something vibrantly alive.

These miniscule seeds in the palm of my hand hold the promise of transforming my garden. Amazing, really. And so common. You can find these packets of hope in every hardware store and garden center in the world. I bought mine from a catalogue with about 1000 varieties of seeds promising an unimaginable harvest.

It’s exciting. These little seeds, these embodiments of hope, energize me at some deep level.

And there’s the sweet pea seeds. I plant them directly into the garden. These seeds look like dried up sweet peas. I’m pretty sure that’s what they are. Fruit from last year’s garden that now appears dead, dried up, lifeless, worthless. But looks can be deceiving.

That dead looking, dried up sweetpea is precious to me. That seed holds the promise of delicious fruit. It doesn’t always work out that way, but while you may see a dried up seed, I see possibility.

The Lord does not see as mortals see; they look on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart. I Samuel 16:7b

I have felt like these seeds; tiny, insignificant, useless, past my prime. My cynical nature doubts there is much that can come from me; my fears and doubts tamp down my expectations. But I must fight these fears.

God creates form from nothing (Gen. 1), brings dead bones to life (Ezek. 37), plants an imperishable seed within us (I Peter 1), and promises resurrection (I Cor. 15). Surely He can transform me into a beautiful flower and a fruit bearing garden.

So I plant these seeds. I water them, tend to them, protect them, and support them. I trust God will transform them. He has been faithful in the past, transforming millions of seeds into flowers, plants, and trees. I have faith that He can and will transform these seeds, and me, as well.

Beloved, we are God’s children now; what we will be has not yet been revealed. What we do know is this: when he is revealed, we will be like him, for we will see him as he is. I John 3:2

What hope these little seeds carry!

What a blessing that God gave us this every-day, common reminder of His transformative powers. How can I doubt when all around me God is proving His amazing power and gracious love?

It may look like a little seed, but it is so much more.

He said therefore, “What is the kingdom of God like? And to what shall I compare it? It is like a mustard seed that someone took and sowed in the garden; it grew and became a tree, and the birds of the air made nests in its branches. Luke 13:18-19

Betsy

Seeds and Sugar Snaps

I look at the packet of seeds and think, “Are you kidding me?” There is no way that these dry little things can bear the yummy looking peas on the cover. If I didn’t have thousands of years of testimony telling me that a plant would grow, I would never believe it. If I didn’t have first-hand experience to the contrary, my cynicism and doubt would keep me from ever planting a seed.

“Don’t be silly, Betsy,” you may say. “There is overwhelming evidence to back up the claims of Ferry-Morse and Burpee.” And yet, so many of the seeds I bury in the ground don’t become sugar snap plants, and some that do become plants never bear fruit. This is universally true of seeds. If not, oak trees and strawberries and pumpkins would cover the earth.

And yet, the only way I will ever get even one sugar snap plant in my backyard is to plant a seed, a seed from this packet which promises so much. That, my friend, is faith.

Cool weather crops, like sugar snaps and lettuces, give me a test run for this faith. I’ll just drop these in to a small portion of my garden space and see if it works; see if Ferry-Morse is giving reliable testimony. I can do this in February or early March, before I have to commit to all that growing tomatoes and cucumbers entail. Those with a greater faith than I can start such summer plants from seeds in their own hothouses. I am going to do a test sample with the sugar snaps in my backyard.

These seed packets excite me somehow. Perhaps because I got off the couch and took my first baby step towards a garden? Perhaps because the seeds herald warmer weather? Perhaps the little step of faith I took buying the seeds creates its own joy; acting in faith often does.

It is as if God gave us seeds so that we could understand what He is doing in our lives and in the world.

And God gave us A LOT of seeds. And it takes A LOT of seeds to get a garden full of sugar snaps. As discouraging as it can be, most seeds do not become fruit-bearing plants. But instead of focusing on the negative aspect of this truth, I choose to focus on the lesson – that I have to sow a lot of seeds to get a healthy sugar snap crop.

Now this I say, He who sows sparingly shall also reap sparingly, and he who sows bountifully shall also reap bountifully.  2 Cor. 9:6

Jesus, in the parable of the sower (Luke 8:5-8), uses this seed metaphor beautifully. There is so much that I can say about seeds! Looking at this seed packet, however, I am in awe of the indulgent generosity of God. In the parable, surely the sower knew that many of those seeds wouldn’t take, but He sowed them anyway. Should I be following His inefficient ways? Is He calling me to not prejudge who is “fertile ground,” but sow His Word everywhere? Or, as Jesus put it, “if (we) greet only our brothers and sisters, what more are (we) doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same?” (Matt. 5:47)

And when I am buying those seed packets, I have to be careful to get the correct seeds. Because the seeds I plant determine the plants I grow. There is a wonderful scene in Second Hand Lions in which they have bought a variety of seed packets labeled incorrectly as okra, cucumber, squash, tomatoes, etc., but they all come up as corn because all the seeds were corn. Truth in advertising laws may prevent Burpee from doing this, but culturally, I think this still happens pretty often. I mustn’t kid myself; if I fill my brain with the seeds of pornography and violence, it is unlikely that I will produce fidelity and gentleness.

Finally, a seed is a beautiful microcosm of the interconnectedness of life. A seed is the beginning of a plant, but it is also the culmination of a plant. And it is so tiny! And it can turn into something so big! But it has to be sown before it can grow. So, whether I am sowing seeds, producing seeds, growing from a seed, or if I am the seed itself, I am part of a greater story which precedes me and will continue after I am gone. I just need to do my part to keep the story going.

“The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed that someone took and sowed in his field. It is the smallest of all the seeds, but when it has grown, it is the greatest of shrubs. Matt 13:31-32 (also Luke 13:18-19)

It is faith that enables me to believe that God can turn the dry little thing in this seed packet into delicious sugar snaps. It is faith that enables me to believe that God can turn even the tiniest, least likely to succeed, unpromising, dry little thing in my life into fruit that brings joy and sustenance to others.

Because I have overwhelming evidence, thousands of years of testimony, and first-hand experience that tell me that if I overcome my cynicism, doubt and inertia and plant a seed, God will make something beautiful grow. Just as iI have overwhelming evidence, thousands of years of testimony, and first-hand experience that tell me that if I act in faith, God will make something beautiful grow in my life.

Betsy

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For the Lord does not see as mortals see; they look on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart. I Samuel 16:7