One of the great things about retirement, or I suppose anytime, is that we get leisure to plant seeds.
I’m a gardener, as you already know, and enjoy the whole process of preparing, digging, planting, nurturing, harvesting. I love the urgency of getting the preparation done, the joy of watching emerging plants develop, and the absolute joy of harvesting and sharing the rewards of my time and effort. One of my favorite things is to make posey bouquets by cutting flowers and greenery, wrapping them in wet paper towels and aluminum foil, putting paper doilies around the stems to showcase the blooms, and tying a bright bow ribbon around them, and presenting these to special friends as nosegays.
Today I will plant sunflower seeds. The ones the raccoons fail to find will grow to twelve-feet tall blooms and multiply themselves into hundreds of seeds to bless the birds who constantly look for goodies in the bird feeders. They’ll enjoy whatever harvest the coons don’t get first.
So too, we nurture the next generation of our heritage. Little Kaley already knows how to pray, and signs a-men when we finish grace and pray at bedtime. Soon she will memorize verses like John 3:16 and grow her life around its truth. When we pray for our yet unborn grandchild, due in October or November, we recognize that we are nurturing, preparing the fertile soil for the church to continue blessing our world. What a joy it is to ponder the rich harvest the Lord will bless when His faithful servants follow his proven plan of action.
Since yesterday when I wrote of the burgeoning nursery population at church, another announcement has come! Praise God. We are truly blessed to know that the Lord is growing His church in far places like Indonesia and India and Myanmar, but also is creating its continuance in our midst. What a blessing to contemplate the positives in this world, when the news seems so negative from the secular world. We know of God’s sovereignty, and are blessed to be a blessing in a dark place.
New life, whether from seeds of parental love, is the hope from which our joy fulfils our need for positive thinking!
About the Author
