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~ March 2010 ~
 I sold some seed corn a couple of weeks back. The
buyer was a wholesaler in LaVergne. Standing in his
warehouse I took in the sights and smells. Sacks of seed
were stacked on pallets reaching toward the ceiling. The
cavernous room was filled with potential lying dormant.
The buyer weighed the seed and transferred it into
sacks. I inquired as to business; he replied that it was busy. "Big orders for grass and alfalfa seed out of Kentucky," he said. "With the forecast for snow farmers are rushing to frost-seed pastures." "Over-seeding" is another term for the same process. The seed is broadcast over the field before or after the snow. The melting snow will carry the seed to the earth.
As in animal species, plants must spread their offspring. Seeds do not walk or fly like animals. Seeds hitchhike on the wind, float across the water or trick an animal into carrying them. Jared Diamond notes this is the case with the wild strawberry. Immature seed are surrounded by fruit that is green and sour. A change in the berries' color and sweetness indicates maturity. Birds cannot resist these tender red darlings. The seed has hitched its ride.
Seeds figure prominently in the stories of Jesus. A favorite is the parable of the seed growing secretly. "The kingdom of God is as if a man should scatter seed upon the ground, and should sleep and rise night and day, and the seed should sprout and grow, and he knows not how." (Mark 4.26) In the meantime the sower has fences to mend and errands to run and a family to feed. All the while the seed grows without the sower lifting a hand. If the seed germinates, it will not be at the behest of the sower.
In Jesus' parables seed often represent the good news. The gospel, like the seed, runs its course. Like germination, conversion cannot be forced or produced or manipulated. Like seed, the good news is sown.
I observe such sowing on Sunday mornings before worship. I float among the halls and observe the classrooms. Often I step into the children's rooms. The welcome is warm and genuine. The faithfulness and dependability of the teachers is a spectacular thing. Precious seed are being sown into the minds and hearts of the young we have been given to nurture. During the week, these teachers work at their jobs, feed their families and run errands. And while they go about their business, all this seed grows secretly.
Some seed is enclosed in a poppable pod, like the Blackeye Pea. The grower must shell the pods to retrieve the edible seeds. Grains like wheat and barley grow at the
top of a stalk that with age shatters dropping the seed to the ground. Amazing, I think, the determination of seeds. No wonder God blessed them. After the flood God spoke
tenderly to the wounded earth: "While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night, shall not cease."
Likewise the good news of Jesus Christ never ceases. It grows while we sleep and go about the busyness of our lives. It simply needs a means of dispersal. Let us be faithful in the sowing, all the while trusting that the good news shall never cease.
Steven |
