Seeds are fascinating.
Think about it. You take this minuscule, easily mistaken for dirt, pellet-like thing and you bury it under the soil. After a few days or weeks, you begin to see sprouts and slowly but surely over time it grows and expands. Roots dive deep into the depths of the earth in search of nutrients and the foliage above ground enlarges and stretches towards the sun, building strength. You no longer have a scrawny good-for-nothing seed, you have a sturdy oak. A shelter, a source of food, a home: resources.
Each seed has a different purpose. Each tree bears different fruit. Each flower a different color. Each vegitable a different taste.
Rambutans
The majority of our prayers are for a specific fruit.
Lord, I want to be like ______. Teach me patience, teach me how to lead. I want to advance your Kingdom, I want ministry to look like a, b and c, etc etc.
These are beautiful prayers, but I think we miss the response.
See, instead of receiving fruit, the Lord gives us a seed. He gives us an idea, a quality, a gift that may look like this little speck.
Will we be faithful with that speck? Will we plant it? Bury it and submit it to Him?
Will we care for it? Water it and weed it?
Because that seed will grow into a tree and that tree will produce fruit which in turn will produce a million more seeds and eventually you will have an orchard. All from one seed.
I bet the people of Israel were pretty shocked with they prayed and prayed for a Savior, and a tiny baby was born. I bet Mary was pretty confused when the angel of the Lord told her that she had found favor with God, and favor looked like pregnancy outside of marriage.
Sometimes seeds might not look pretty, but there is something beautiful waiting to be released.
One last thing. Seeds are not fruit. A seed is pretty useless unless it is invested in. When we receive a seed, a word from the Lord, a gift, a picture, or a dream, are we planting it? Or are we just collecting seeds?
He is like a tree planted by streams of water,
which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither.
-Psalms 1:3
