Seeds

Tender New Sprouts!

Such an everyday miracle of creation has not gone unnoticed in our case. Our unstable soils of a year and a half had given us a sense of desperation. We have waited fifteen days, which feels like weeks, for the sowed seeds to give us a telltale sign of life, of germination in the wood and paper pulp. In the first six hours of sowing, the rains threatened to wash the seed away. My elation at an open window of sky to sow the seeds successfully that morning was quickly dampened at the sight of the slope surfaces slipping in the precipitating onslaught. Are my purchased seeds subject to luck and chance or will the Seed Maker look favorably upon my slippery slopes and grace it with gentle rains and sunshine to call forth the seeds of life and preservation? I never imagined sowing grass seeds could test faith. Despite sowing for success, the final outcome was out of my control. Did I believe God cared for these seeds? My experience and gut level faith told me that God is infinite, all-powerful, loving and "personal" enough to nurture and care for even my grass seeds. He delights in being invited to "show up" in the details of our lives. Seeds and life are his domain. He continues to keep the seeds moist with rain, snow, sleet, and hail, cool days and nights, and just enough sunshine to warm and draw those tender shoots upward. To see those fine whiskers on the face of the land made my soul sing and joy dance within me. I couldn't wait to tell Marshal, and when he failed to see them, I ushered him by the arm, crouched him low, and squinted with him in the late afternoon glow that engulfed them. We even ran our hands over the surface and felt them tickle. Such exultation and relief surged through us. I reflect that our Heavenly Father is concerned about all our sowing and reaping, and a fruitful harvest is His reward.

"Seek the Lord while he may be found; call on him while he is near. Let the wicked forsake their ways and the unrighteous their thoughts. Let them turn to the Lord, and he will have mercy on them, and to our God, for he will freely pardon. 'For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,' declares the Lord. As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. As the rain and snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, so is my word that goes out from my mouth; It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it. Isaiah 55:6-11