By Therese D.
Who doesn’t enjoy a good piece of sweet, satisfying fruit in season? This time of year, most people enjoy savory fruits like squashes and pumpkins. All fruits start as seeds, which are dormant developmental stages of genetic material and nutrients ready for planting. Fruit seeds are unique in that they possess an embryo, a nutrient reserve, and a protective coat that safeguards the embryo during dormancy and dispersal.
Last summer, I witnessed a dormant pumpkin seed emerge in my yard. My best guess is that a seed remained there from a pumpkin planted 10 years prior. This one little seed was waiting for the opportune conditions to emerge. Thankfully, I didn’t pull it during spring weeding, so I watered it and watched it grow. Little did I know that the experience would teach me many lessons about how the Word of God is the best seed we can plant and cultivate. My job was to water and watch. As the plant flourished, small fruits appeared. Some of them looked vibrant at first, but later shriveled. One vine grew a bit crooked and seemed to be dying. However, over the next week, it pushed against the fence and victoriously broke through to the other side. Eventually, the two largest fruits grew on this very vine. As the plant and its fruit matured, the pumpkins started to ripen in preparation for the harvest. During this phase, the vine began to die off while the fruit continued to mature and ripen. Four mature, near-perfect pumpkins were harvested from a plant that had sat dormant for 10 years. Now, each mature fruit had an average of 500 seeds to share for multiplication.
Life in God’s Word is like the journey of this pumpkin plant. We have a choice to water the seeds of truth so that we may grow into full maturity as fruit-bearing disciples of Christ—our destiny here on earth and for all of eternity. Our role as Christians is to stay connected to the vine and rely on God’s grace as we break through the challenges and barriers of life. We can then demonstrate victorious living by sharing seeds of hope through the nutritious, savory fruit of truth found in the message of God’s grace and sacrifice. Every word from our mouth is an opportunity to deposit a seed of light. Sadly, society bombards our minds with seeds of a sinful nature—which Paul describes in Galatians 5 as obvious. As Christians, we live by the Spirit and bear its fruit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. These are the seeds we are called to plant, regardless of how long they may remain dormant in those seeking truth. In the right conditions and at the opportune time, the life contained within will emerge for those who hear the good news.
As you enjoy your pumpkin pie this Thanksgiving, consider the opportunities in this season to deposit seeds of hope into what can seem like a very dark world. Sometimes we are called to plant the seed, and other times to water it. Let’s help the kingdom grow by doing our part as the hands and feet for the Lord of the Harvest.